The Omega Mutation
by Joshua Falken
Summary: Ash Ketchum discovers a terrible secret about his mother... a secret that threatens destroy his family and friends... Chapter 18 is up! Fic completed!
1. The Creation of Omega

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

* * *

_**Chapter 1 - The Creation of Omega**_

_"Mutation: Changes in the DNA that happens during cellular reproduction. It is the key to the process of evolution of the species, allowing living beings to adapt to changes in their environment. Although in Pokémon this process happens at a surprising speed, in the human beings, it process happens only slowly... but sometimes... evolution can be accelerated..."_

_Professor Charles Xavier  
"The X–Factor"_

* * *

_Somewhere in the Northeastern region of Indigo Continent  
Sixteen years before the present day_

In an underground base, two red-uniformed Elite Rockets dragged a red-haired woman who was trying to get free of them. A gag choked off her screams. They walked through the gloomy corridors until they reached a reinforced metal door with an inscription: 'Project Omega.'

The doors opened and revealed a great laboratory, worthy of a horror film. The woman was thrown in front of a massive view-screen. The screen snapped on, revealing a dark-haired woman that looked at the beaten woman with an air of contempt and scorn. The redhead recognised her immediately. Even through her gag, she tried to look defiant. It didn't work.

"Now, what were you thinking of when you tried to betray Team Rocket?" asked the dark-haired woman, "when you tried to betray _ME?!_"

The redhead couldn't reply, of course.

"Now you will _know_ what happens to those that betray _us_."

One of the two Red Rockets raised a spray gun. He fired the weapon, releasing a cloud of stun spores from a Vileplume. The hapless ex-Team Rocket agent was instantly paralysed.

Madame Boss smirked sadistically and pressed a button on the armrest of the chair in that she was seated in.

"_R & D labs_," said an anonymous voice.

"Doctor," she said, "you may begin Project Omega. We have a guinea pig ready for your experiments."

Some minutes later a woman in a lab coat was giving orders to a group of white-coated lab assistants "Put her in the Chamber."

Three laboratory assistants tore off the woman's clothes, leaving her totally naked. She was carried over to a glass chamber and thrown inside there with all the care of a man throwing aside a sack of rubbish. Inside of the chamber, pitiless robotic devices drove a series of threads and tubes into the woman's body. She was still perfectly conscious when the electricity went through the fluid... and her body. The pain was so intense that she was quite glad when her consciousness faded away.

* * *

_One year later... _

A woman approached the front door of the Viridian City Pokémon Center. She was wearing a long black waterproof coat. The woman leaned in the door and, suddenly, the coat fell in the ground, as if it _never_ had anyone there...

===========

Nurse Joy Anderson was verifying for the last time the states of Pokémon in her care when she heard a noise. Holding the breathing, she went check what had happened. The sound had come from the reception.

Walking quietly, Joy turned in a corridor and she saw someone in the reception. The nurse pulled a Pokéball, and released a guard-trained Growlithe.

"Hey _who are you?_"

"It's me! Officer Jenny!" Jenny Collins left the shadows, weapon in hand. "Call that Growlithe back, Joy!"

Confused and surprised, Joy did what the policewoman asked. "But what are you _doing here?_"

"The repeater at the police station for the Center's silent intruder alarm went off about ten minutes ago," Jenny explained. "I was called to check it ... but it seems that was a false alarm." The policewoman looked at around and smiled. Joy thought there was something _wrong_ about that smile, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. "Can I see the security panel?"

"Sure."

The two women went over to the panel, where Nurse Joy answered the policewoman's questions. Some minutes later, Jenny said that she was leaving. When the nurse turned, there was a blur of motion too fast to be human. A long, thin blade of solidified blue gel punched through the hapless nurse's chest, from behind killing her instantly. 

Her murderess withdrew her weapon and eased the corpse to the ground. She looked at the long katana blade that protruded from her elbow like some kind of artificial limb as it abruptly began to fill out into a human arm Then an astounding transformation took place. As 'Jenny' stepped away from her victim, she suddenly rippled into a human-like form made of entirely blue gel. The shape changed subtly into the form of another woman. There was another ripple and the shape took on the coloration of skin and clothing. She was now a precise duplicate of the late Joy Anderson.

False Joy went back to the security panel, placed her hand on a sensor and the Pokémon Center door opened up. Another few touches to the controls erased the security videos. Several Team Rocket agents entered and they went directly to the door of the Pokéball Safe. False Joy approached them. "I will deal with that," she announced.

"Joy" then rippled again into blue gel, then became a red-haired woman with a dark blue uniform. On the chest of her tunic, instead of the usual blood red "R" sigil, was a scarlet Greek letter Omega. She approached of the lock of the door and suddenly her hand became a key, and she opened the door of the safe. The "woman's" emotionless brown eyes looked on as the Rockets plundered the Pokéballs in the safe.

===========

Later that night, the red-haired woman was called to Madame Boss's Office. In the shadows, the founder of Team Rocket admired her most powerful creation. "An excellent job, Omega."

"I am happy that my work has pleased you, My Master." Omega said in strangely modulated tone of voice.

Madame Boss stood and walked over to her subordinate no, her _slave_. Her gloved fingers combed through Omega's long red hair until she found a fine plastic ribbon with electronic circuits printed on it.

_Who would imagine that such an ordinary-looking object could control so much power...?_ the criminal mastermind thought to herself with a pleased smile.

* * *

_Team Rocket Headquarters  
Two and a half years later_

Two Red Rockets were watching from a special room, full of monitors, a restricted access area of the Headquarters facility: the Project Omega laboratories. One of them, a blonde woman looked up when a red light flashed on. There was an unexpected movement within Agent Omega's rooms.

"Thelma, I'm going to check how our star agent is doing," she said.

"Alright, Louise," her dark-haired partner replied, not looking up from her magazine for a second.

Louise left the room and went through a corridor until she reached the door with the letter Omega printed in bright yellow and she entered. After some minutes, she emerged again, shaking her head. Thelma asked what had happened, as the motion detectors continued to flash their warning.

"Nothing," Louise reported. "It's just a defect in the sensor. Our friend is sleeping like an angel."

Thelma looked at sceptical at her partner-in-crime for one moment, then she shrugged. "Look, Thelma. I'm just going to the bathroom for an second, ok?"

"Sure."

Half hour had passed, and Louise did not reappear. Concerned, Thelma went into the bathroom, and she didn't find her partner. Now, _really_ concerned, she went back to the surveillance room and pressed the intercom switch. "Command and Control, this is Security. Problems with Omega, I repeat, problems with Omega!"

Thelma knew what she was about to do was suicide, especially as she was all-too-aware of what Omega _was_ and what it _was capable of_. She pulled a Remington 870 shotgun out of a weapons locker and ran down the hall to the containment chamber. She was in such a hurry that she dropped half of the shells she tried to load into the weapon. Thelma paused in front of the doors to the containment chamber. Thelma yanked back the slide on her shotgun and stroked it forward, loading the first shell. Swallowing dryly, the Red Rocket opened the huge armoured doors. She leapt into the room and swept around her with her shotgun.

The woman saw what the problem was immediately. On the ground, was Louise's body. The Red Rocket had a massive wound in her chest as if someone had pushed a long spike right through her. Behind her was a completely destroyed containment chamber... The impossible had happened. Omega had escaped. "Oh _shit_!"

======

Three kilometres from there, a bubble of blue gel dropped out of a sewer out-fall pipe. However, instead of simply washing away in the surf, the bubble _rose up_ and began flow into the form of a woman's body... Omega turned to the sea and began to morph into a Lapras, intending to swim for her freedom. Before she did so, however, a name escaped her lips: A name that she hadn't uttered for three-and-a-half nightmare years of slavery... _her name_.

"Delilah," she said.

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What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	2. Disclosure

The Omega Mutation - chapter 2

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

_**Chapter 2 - Disclosure**_

_Present Day_

A capacity crowd in Indigo Plateau Stadium observed the battle that was unfolding between the two rival trainers from Pallet Town: Gary Thomas Oak, the favourite, and thirteen-year-old Ash Ethan Ketchum, the revelation of the Global Pokémon League.

"With the victory of Trainer Ketchum's Chikorita over Trainer Oak's Fearow, the scores are tied as 2 – 2," the commentator exclaimed to a worldwide audience in its' billions. "This last round decides who will be the Supreme Champion of the Global League for the year 2063!"

The umpire strode out to the center mark of the arena. "Choose your Pokémon!" he ordered.

Ash's choice was obvious. "Pikachu, I choose you!"

Gary chose his faithful Umbreon, once the Eevee that he started out with three long harsh years before.

The silence reigned in the Stadium until that the start signal sounded loudly.

"Umbreon, Omni-blast!"

"Pikachu, Agility!"

In the bleachers on the side east of the stadium, a group of three people were shouting their support of Ash. They were Brock Harrison, Misty Williams and Delilah Ketchum, Ash's mother. Beside them was Professor Samuel Oak, who observed the battle between his grandson and the boy who was as close to him as a son with a warm smile. He was surprised, and overjoyed, at the incredible skills both were displaying...

Suddenly, Delilah's face twisted into a grimace of pain and discomfort.

"What's wrong, Mrs. Ketchum?" Brock asked surprised.

"I don't know," Delilah said in a suddenly quiet tone of voice. "I don't feel well... Excuse me."

The red-haired woman got up and went to the corridor C of the stadium. She felt a deep, dull pain in her stomach. She began to run until she reached the women's toilets.

By the time she arrived, only seconds later, the dull pain had suddenly intensified into an agonising sword of flame, trying to cut its' way out of her stomach. Somehow, she staggered into one of the stalls and she vomited hard. Delilah's normally pale skin was a ghostly white when she heard the door of the toilets opening.

"_Mrs. Ketchum?_" It was Misty.

Delilah tried to smile. She attained to that goal, even if it was a very embarrassed smile.

"Are you OK?" The Cerulean City Trainer asked, concerned for her best friend's mother.

"I'm okay," Delilah said in a reassuring tone. She patted the young woman on the shoulder. "I think that hot-dog didn't agree with me. I'm on my way back to my seat already."

Misty nodded and left the bathroom, reassured.

Delilah breathed deeply, her face twisted with concern. Before returning to her seat, she flushed the toilet and watched as the blue gel-like fluid that she had vomited up was flushed away.

Two days later, the Ketchum party was readying itself for its' return to Pallet Town, where Ash's victory would be celebrated again, this time with a party to which _everyone_ living in the town was invited.

Brock was trying to find his backpack which, for some reason, wasn't in his room. He knew that it wasn't in Ash's room, or Misty's. Brock grinned as he remembered searching Ash's room. The boy didn't notice him, he was too busy staring at the Supreme Championship trophy and whispering "I don't believe it!" over and over again, with a big smile in his face.

"Perhaps someone put it in Mrs. Ketchum's room by mistake," he thought.

Brock left his room and walked down the corridor to her room. He was about to knock on the door when he heard something. Curious, he approached the door and listened.

A woman's voice, was speaking in a hoarse and nervous tone, but one that was also strangely cold and inhuman: "I'm losing cohesion."

A man's voice responded in a reassuring murmur, that Brock, much to his frustration, couldn't understand.

The hoarse feminine voice: "No, I lost the last doses of the serum. I don't know _where I left it!_"

The Pewter City Gym Leader knocked on the door. He heard the hoarse voice curse venomously before Mrs. Ketchum opened the door.

"_What is it?_ Oh, it's you, Brock." Delilah tried to clear her ferocious scowl off of her face and offer him her usual warm and reassuring smile. She didn't do too well.

The young man blushed immediately. Delilah, who seemed too tired to notice his reaction, was dressed in just a T-shirt over the bra and panties.

"Um," he said uncertainly. "Mrs. Ketch Ketchum, do you uh know if they left my er backpack in your room?"

Delilah's eyes shone with surprise. "Oh, yes! Yes, they did, Brock. Your backpack is on the table." She opened the door. Brock noticed the TV set in front of the bed.

_That explains the voices,_ Brock thought. _She must have been watching something on TV._ When he picked up his backpack, Brock noticed that the wardrobe was open. The only thing hanging up in it was a black plastic rain cape. He thought that was odd, until he noticed the packed suitcase sitting on the bed.

"Have you got everything Brock?" Mrs. Ketchum asked, smiling slightly as the young man from Pewter City looked around him with those narrowed eyes of his. _He should have become a cop,_ Delilah thought irreverently. _He has just the right attitude._

Brock nodded and turned to leave the room. The room was dimly lit with the light of a tied lamp. Back-lit by the corridor lights and with her hands poised on her waist, Delilah suddenly looked _very threatening._ Brock swallowed dryly and left very quickly. She watched him leave and then closed the door.

Delilah leaned against the door, her face expressionless. Her brown eyes suddenly began to glow a brilliant green. Within there was just a hint of slitted pupils, like those of a snake. "No _damn you keep control_," Delilah hissed, her voice as cold as liquid nitrogen. Biting her lip, she closed her eyes and frowned in concentration. When she opened her eyes again, they had returned to their normal chocolate brown...

A week passed and the Ketchums were back home in Pallet Town. Brock had to go to Pewter City to sort out another mess caused by his well-meaning but frequently irresponsible father. Sometimes Brock wondered who was the brat of the Harrison family: his youngest brother, Steel, or his father... Misty had taken the opportunity to go to visit her sisters in Cerulean City, especially her middle sister, Violet, who had surprised everyone by announcing her engagement.

It was already night, but Ash was still outside the house, playing with Pikachu and Chikorita. Then he heard a noise from inside of the house, a noise like a cry of pain and the breaking of glass. Ash looked up in concern and summoned his two best Pokémon to his side. _Mom,_ he thought and ran into the house.

===========

Delilah was breathing slowly, trying to control the pain that had turned her nervous system into threads of fire that scorched through her limbs. Suddenly, all the strength drained out of her and she dropped to the kitchen floor, knocking down several glasses and plates that smashed loudly against the linoleum.

The pain was unbearable, but still Delilah didn't scream. She _didn't want_ Ash to know that she felt such pain... A pain that she knew so well... Delilah concentrated, focussing all of her formidable will to force the pain away, but it did not work this time. With a growing sense of utter horror, she realised that she could no longer stop this process from taking place, no matter how much she _couldn't_ let it happen...

"Mom?" Ash had entered in the kitchen.

"Ash _run away_" she whimpered as her body tensed and then suddenly spasmed as if she were epileptic. Then it happened. At that moment, Ash Ketchum became witness to a transformation that _no one,_ especially a thirteen-year-old boy, should _ever_ see.

His mother had fallen in the ground of the kitchen, writhing with an agony that transcended any other pain a human could feel. She was making a liquid sound of torment as if something were tearing her lungs out. Then her face cleared of all expression and she jerked backwards, almost flipping herself off of the ground with the violence of her movement. Ash watched in horror as his mother's clothes suddenly flashed into a translucent blue gel and flowed into the shape of her body, still beautiful despite her thirty-seven years. Simultaneously, her skin and hair lost its' colour and flowed smoothly into the same alien viscous fluid. Ash saw his mother's kind, warm brown eyes suddenly turn a deadly green shade and the pupils of her eyes lengthen into snake-like slits.

The inhuman thing that had been Delilah Ketchum howled in pain and frustration, a sound that could not _ever_ be produced by a human throat. Ash stared helplessly at the naked human female form rendered in a flowing blue gel-like fluid as it shuddered and then relaxed. Ash could only stand there, paralysed with utter terror as he stared at the thing before him. His mind whirled, and although the fluidic face retained the shape and form of his mother's face, he could not accept that _this_ could be her. Behind him, Pikachu and Chikorita were frozen in fear. They were two courageous Pokémon, but this was a horror beyond even their ability to fight.

Ash was trying to figure out what to do, when one of the _thing's_ gelatinous arms reached out to him in what was either supplication or the precursor of some attack. "Ash," it said in his mother's voice. Ash unfroze instantly. Instinct took over and sent him staggering away from the monster reaching towards him. Ash shot through the doorway and fled into the night, screaming like a lost soul.

Delilah felt sore all over as she pulled herself uncertainly to her feet. On the other hand, the pain was gone, thank God; returning to her minimum-energy 'default' form was a strangely liberating experience. Feeling free, loose and extremely comfortable, she strode to the window to call her son back. Ash was already long out of earshot, and was barely visible to _human_ eyes. Delilah's body compensated automatically, providing her with the perfect night vision of an Umbreon and the telescopic vision of a Fearow. She spotted her son's fleeing form immediately and her perfect sense of spatial acuity noted that he was running right towards the Pallet-Viridian Fault, a deep geological chasm to the north of the town.

Delilah strode past the two trembling Pokémon without a backward glance and walked out into the cold air, not noticing the air temperature in the slightest. She took two running steps forward and two graceful wings like those of a Fearow's suddenly flowed into being from her back. She leapt upwards and soared gracefully into the air in pursuit of her panicking child.

==========

Ash fled mindlessly through the forest. Branches and twigs tore at his clothes and flesh, but he was unable to think of anything except that _nightmare_ that he had just barely escaped. Whatever _it_ was, it had adopted the form of his mother. Fury and terror collided in his head as a part of him wondered how long that he had a... had a... a _changeling_ as a mother. Days? Months? _Years?_ An even more terrible possibility occurred to him: that the breasts that nursed him and the womb that bore him "NO!" Ash shouted into the night. "That _monster_ is _not_ my _mother!_ _It is not!_"

Ash continued to babble a half-insane chant of denial as he fled through the night, trying to convince himself that he had somehow _not_ seen what he had just seen. Then, suddenly, he was in free-fall, tumbling down into a darkness that had opened up beneath him without any warning.

A tiny part of Ash's mind that was still capable of processing information about his environment announced that he was falling into the Pallet-Viridian Fault. He seemed to remember hearing at school that it was about four and a half miles deep. He felt strangely glad when he realised he was falling to his death. At least he wouldn't have to deal with

Suddenly, Ash wasn't falling anymore. He felt a surge of acceleration as some flying creature seized him around his waist, arced around into a zooming climb and soared up and out of the fault. Ash could hear the beating of huge wings, a sound that made him think of leather or, maybe, human skin slicing through the air. "Ash, _are you okay?_" he heard a familiar voice ask. "Did you hurt yourself?"

Ash twisted around and stared into an image from his most horrible nightmares. His mother was looking at him, her face filled with loving concern, but her face was formed out of a translucent blue gel-like fluid that shone like the surface of a lake in the moonlight. Her eyes were _green_ with black snake-like slits. Ash was certain that they were glowing softly. The flesh that Ash was pressed against in a loving, protective hold was cold and the flesh of her arms flowed like oil under his hands. Behind her, huge graceful wings of blue gel-like fluid beat a steady rhythm.

Ash abandoned his last slender toehold on calm and sanity and got ready to scream his throat raw. Suddenly, her cold hand slapped over his mouth. Ash felt a tingling in his head that he barely had time to recognise as some manner of psychic attack before he was sleeping peacefully.

With tears flowing freely down her face, the being that humans knew as Delilah Ketchum adjusted her hold on her son and extruded an extra pair of arms like those of a Machamp so she was holding him tightly against her body. Then she turned gracefully and flew back towards her home.

If you had looked up, that night in Pallet Town, you would have seen a strange shape fly overhead, illuminated by the moonlight; a shape that could have been an angel or, perhaps, a demon...

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	3. Difficult Awakening

The Omega Mutation - chapter 3

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

_**Chapter 3 - Difficult Awakening**_

Silently, Delilah Ketchum carried her son up the stairs and, lovingly and gently, placed him on his bed. A part of her mind was surprised to note that he didn't have even a single scratch on his body, in spite of his desperate race through the woods that had left his clothes covered with long, jagged tears.

_I suppose I can only be thankful for this small favour,_ she thought.

After covering, carefully, her son with a blanket, she watched him for some time. Ash slept peacefully, as if he had taken a dose of a strong tranquilliser. Sighing, she went back down to the kitchen to look for Pikachu and Chikorita.

The two Pokémon watched her suspiciously. She watched as electricity crackled around Pikachu's cheek pads and Chikorita waved her vine whips threateningly. "Pi-chu-kachu-pika-Pika-pi?" [What have you done to Ash?] Pikachu asked. He was trying to sound brave, but fear coloured his tone.

Delilah concentrated and subtly modified her vocal chords so she could respond as clearly as she could. "Pika-pi-chu-kachu- pikachu," she responded in the electric mouse's own language. "Pi-ka-kachu-pikachu-chu-pika-kachu-chu-ka-pi-pika-pi-pi." [Ash is unharmed, Pikachu. I will take you and Chikorita up to him immediately.]

Pikachu and Chikorita both jumped when they heard this _human?_ Perhaps not When they heard her speaking in Pikachu's own language. While Pikachu struggled to understand what this might mean, both for himself and for his friend, Chikorita barged forward.

"Chik-chik-ori-chi-chikorita-ri-ri-ta-chiko," [If you have hurt him, I will make you _sorry_,] the little plant-type said threateningly.

Delilah laughed slightly. "Chikorita-ta-chi-ori-ori-chikorita," she said. "Ta-chi-chikorita-kori-chi." [I would _never_ harm him, Chikorita. He is my beloved child.]

Both Pokémon looked at each other for a long moment before Pikachu finally nodded. He was still suspicious, but he was also eager to see his friend again. Delilah stooped and picked her son's friends up. She took them up to Ash's bedroom and placed them on her son's bed. In a normal situation, she would not allow that... but this situation was _far_ from being normal. She was aware of _that_.

Delilah closed the door of Ash's bedroom and closed her eyes in an exhaustion that had nothing to do with physical tiredness and _everything_ to do with an exhaustion of the soul. Ash would have peace and rest until tomorrow morning due to the Sleep Wave Attack that she had applied. But Delilah's knew that her torment was just _beginning_.

_Well, first I have some important matters to take care of,_ she thought.

=========

A few minutes later, she called the only person that knew about her secret. He appeared on the screen of the videophone, his face reddened and his eyes filled with sleep.

"Yes?" he said with a yawn. Suddenly his eyes opened wider and he lurched forward. "What? Who are you?"

"It's me."

"_Delilah!_ But... _but you are..._"

"Yes, I'm in my real form. The serum wore off and I could not maintain such a complex shape for long." She breathed deeply. "Ash knows now."

"Oh my God!" The man's face now was a mask of horror as he took this in.

"When will the new batch of serum be ready?" Delilah asked in a sharp tone. She really _wasn't_ in the mood to explain the terrible events of this night at this time.

"Uh Tomorrow," her contact responded. "At 1000 hours."

"All right," Delilah responded calmly. "I'll have Mr. Mime pick it up at the usual spot."

Her contact nodded, then sighed and drew his hand through his hair. "Damn, but this is going to be ugly, Delilah. Good luck with your son."

"Thanks," Delilah responded, and cut off the call. Good luck.... She would _really_ need that!

The being made entirely from a translucent blue gel-like fluid walked down the stairs and thought deeply about what her next move ought to be. This had always been her greatest fear; that her son would discover _what_ she was... Hmm If she re-enforced the Sleep Wave attack, Ash would be out cold until midday at the very least. If she took the serum and used all her strength to maintain her 'normal human' disguise, she could easily pretend that everything Ash had seen was nothing but a nightmare... _No_, she could not do that... Ash had seen her transforming into her real form. What made it worse was that she was losing the capacity to maintain her human appearance for any prolonged period, especially now that the serum was, for some reason, losing its' effect...

Delilah paused at the bottom of the stairs and gathered all her strength. She tried to morph into her "human" form. For a few moments her skin flushed to a more human shade and her hair darkened to red. In less than a second, and long before she could refashion her body into the appearance of clothing, the stress became too much and she had to allow her body to flow back into its' natural liquid blue appearance. Delilah sighed and hugged herself tightly. As comfortable as her 'default' shape was, she had no desire to lose forever her ability to look well normal. _Well, maybe its' just because I'm tired,_ she thought, trying to cheer herself up.

Delilah nodded firmly to herself and came to a decision. She _had_ to explain what was happening. She had seen the panic in Ash's eyes when he saw her transformation... And she _didn't want_ to imagine what would happen if he saw she morphing into her real form again...

She sighed and fell in the sofa of the living room, at the same time, resigned and afraid.

She _had_ to tell her son the truth. She _owed_ him that... The problem was that she could not tell him the _entire_ truth...

Delilah stood up and went up to her own bedroom. She stood on her bed and removed a hidden panel in the roof, from where she pulled a small black box. The mutant woman opened the box and she took its' contents in her translucent blue hands. There were two old photos and a necklace, well more a collar really, with electronic circuits on it. These were Delilah Ketchum's only remaining connections with her past.

The first photo showed two red-haired women, one wearing a Team Rocket white uniform. The scenery in the picture looked like a hospital ward somewhere. The oldest woman, in the uniform, was her, Delilah, in happier days. The younger redhead, in the bed (whose hair was a strange shade, almost purple) was her younger sister. She held her baby girl in her arms, a child less than two hour old when this picture had been taken. A tear escaped from Delilah's alien green eyes as she remembered that happy moment.

The other picture was of her with a young man with black messy hair, wearing a Red Rocket uniform. They were hugging in a way that made it clear that their relationship went way _beyond_ just friendship.

Delilah looked at the photos with contradictory feelings. If, on the one hand, they evoked memories that cheered and consoled her, they also remembered her of a past that she _could not tell_ to her son... _she could not tell... she could not tell..._

Shaking her head, as if to get rid of the weight of her past, she went to the bathroom, to wash her face.

"I only hope Ash forgives me..." she murmured to the alien liquid blue face in the mirror. 

_He will never forgive you. You have deceived him for his entire life_. Her cold inner voice told her.

"He _will_ understand. I know that much."

_He won't. He is now a danger for you_. The voice continued.

"No." she murmured, shaking her head.

_He is a __danger__... One that you should __eliminate!__ Immediately! __Now!_

"_No!_" She screamed. She punched the mirror, _hard,_ smashing the glass to shards and punching right through the wall into the closet on the other side. Delilah stepped back and watched as her hand slowly morphed back to normal, losing the vicious spikes on the knuckles. A normal human would have shattered every bone in their hand even trying to punch through a brick wall like that. _God how I miss being able to bleed,_ she thought to herself.

Delilah staggered back and collapsed to the floor of the bathroom, crying helplessly.

=======

Delilah's eyes reacted automatically when the first sunbeams filtered through the window of the bathroom, waking her up. It was the dawn of a new day, but for Delilah, it was the day that she had lived in fear of for the past thirteen years.

Resigned with her destiny, she went to Ash's bedroom, to wait until he woke up...

======

Slowly, Ash opened his eyes, confused and disoriented. Where was he? The last thing that he remembered was seeing his mother changing into some kind of monster...

He blinked twice to clear his vision. Now completely awake, he saw his mother's face hovering over him... a face made of a gelatinous clear blue fluid... Ash immediately did the last thing he wanted to do before he went to sleep last night. He _screamed_ as loud as he could.

Delilah winced. "Ash, don't be afraid," she pleaded.

Unhappily, that was a request that he could not grant at this time. Ash's scream degenerated into a panicked whimper. His mind strained, desperately instructing his body to move to _escape_ from that... _nightmare_, but he couldn't so much as twitch a finger. He decided that she ... _it_ was using Paralysis to keep him in the bed. Desperation lent power to his efforts. He managed to move his head enough to see Pikachu crouching on his pillow. "Pikachu... _Thunder-shock!_" he ordered, his voice just a degree away from a scream.

Delilah didn't move, but as Ash watched, her entire body flowed and suddenly turned a slate grey colour. It was as if she had turned to _stone_. Pikachu's attack washed out over her body, but electrical attacks are useless against rock-types. Delilah wasn't even inconvenienced by the Thunder-shock.

The Pokémon Trainer and his mother looked at each other as Delilah's skin flowed back into blue fluid. Even though he was desperately afraid, the surge of panic had exhausted itself now. Ash noticed that the eyes of the being before him were filled with a deep sadness. He saw that she was feeling a great pain.

Swallowing dryly, he spoke, trying to sound defiant but failing miserably. "Well, what planet are you from and what did you do with my mother?" he asked.

Sighing, the woman before him answered. "It's _me_, Ash. Your mother!" Delilah didn't blame him for not believing her. If _she_ were in _his_ place, _she would not_ believe either...

"Well 'Mom,' if you are who you say that you are, then.... How did I capture Togepi?"

She seemed surprised. "You didn't capture her, Ash. Togepi hatched out of an egg that you found, and, when she saw Misty, she thought that she was her mother."

_Right answer,_ he thought, unsure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "When I was born?"

"On February 14, 2050, right here in Pallet Town." Delilah smiled at such a simple question, and she decided to make her answer as complete as possible. "Your blood is Type O Rhesus Negative and you have a birthmark: a stain in form of waxing moon behind your left shoulder."

_Right again._ Now it was time to ask the decisive question. Only his mother could know the answer to this question. No one else had been present. Ash drew in a deep breath to fill himself with courage before asking the question. "Well, when I was seven years old, I suffered an ugly fall on the stairs and I had to go to the hospital. That night, I had a nightmare and I woke up. Well then, what was the song that you sang for me in that night?"

Delilah looked at Ash in surprise. Did he want her to play the _singer_ now? Well, if that was what he needed if he was to believe her Delilah closed her eyes and began to sing.

_"To dream the impossible dream   
To fight the unbeatable foe   
To bear with unbearable sorrow   
To run where the brave dare not go.   
  
To right the unrightable wrong   
To be far better than you know   
To try when your arm grows too weary   
To reach the unreachable star."_

As he listened to this impossible being singing the correct song so unmistakably in his mother's voice, Ash could only stare as his mind realised the impossible truth: _she was his mother_.

Ash was silent for some minutes until he could sufficiently gather his wits to speak. "Then... since when you are like Mystique?"

Despite everything, Delilah laughed: she did look a bit like that character in the comic books Ash loved as a child. "Well... this is due to a genetic mutation." She saw the way Ash stared at her. "_Yes,_ as in the comic books."

"Are you a human being or an alien?" He asked, looking her up and down in disbelief.

"I am _completely_ human," Delilah replied sharply, and then reproved herself silently for that. "The only thing different about me is that I have a few special abilities that most humans don't have. Nothing more than that."

Ash was still not convinced. Not that anyone could blame him for that. "Nothing more than that," he repeated in disbelief. "Well then, what would you do if I decided to go to the _Security Police_ and told them the truth about you?" he asked in a challenging tone.

She lowered the eyes and, when she answered, it was in a murmur. "Nothing. I would ask you to not do it, but that is all."

Ash couldn't believe that he had heard that. "Wouldn't you _try_ to stop me?"

"No," Delilah said quietly. "Because I would prefer _to be destroyed_ or to spend _the rest of my life_ as a prize specimen in some laboratory than to see you hurt, Ash." Delilah lifted her alien slitted green eyes, and he saw in them her love and honesty.

He could only look at his mother in silence.

=======

Unknown to Delilah and Ash, a spy satellite that, by a million-to-one chance, had been over Pallet Town that night recorded their night flight, and sent the image to the headquarters of the organization that was its' creator and owner. In a few days, that image would create a stir unlike any previously known in the organization known as Team Rocket...

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	4. Adaptation

The Omega Mutation - chapter 4

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

_**Chapter 4 - Adaptation**_

It was a fairly normal morning in a fairly normal suburban kitchen. A woman stood by a stove, preparing a breakfast for her son. There was nothing odd about this scene at all, except for the woman herself. This woman was made entirely of a shimmering, translucent blue gel-like fluid that didn't _move_; it _flowed_ from position to position like some kind of surreal sculpture. What made the scene even more mind-bending was the red apron she wore with '#1 Mom!' stencilled on the front.

Delilah Ketchum prepared the breakfast, while she waited for Ash to leave his bedroom and come down stairs for his morning meal. Yesterday, after hearing her revelations, he had asked her to leave him alone and give him time to think. Of course she agreed without question... she understood his situation.

Hearing somebody come down the stairway, Delilah immediately assumed her "human" form. Blue fluid flowed and re-formed, paling to the colour of Caucasian flesh-tone. Her hair darkened to fiery red and her body re-shaped itself into the likeness of clothes, taking on the colour and texture of fabric. By the time Pikachu and Chikorita walked into view, there was no way to tell Delilah was anything but a completely typical human female. Of course, the two Pokémon _knew_ that she was _not_.

"Pika-pi-chu-kachu-pika-ka." [Ash will come down in a few minutes,] the electric mouse said formally.

"Thank you, Pikachu," Delilah replied. She took two bowls full of what Brock once called 'Pika-chow,' and put it down by the rear door. "And here is your breakfast." The two Pokémon observed the food that she made for them for some moments before they began to eat it slowly: it was as if they were checking if the food was normal.

With her back for them, Delilah clenched her hands in tension. _What is wrong with them?_ she asked herself in hurt. _Do they think I would poison them? Maybe poison my own son too?_

_And should you not have done that?_ Her inner voice asked in a sneering tone.

She shook the head, trying to drive the thought from her mind. It was difficult, God it was so difficult. She had spent her entire adult life as a terrorist and an outlaw. She wasn't used to trusting _anyone,_ and her condition made it even harder. She had been _programmed_ as to what she should do if anyone were to discover her true nature. She loved her son, but it was a continual fight against a behavioural conditioning that was _far_ more perfect than she realised.

"Mom?" Speaking of her son Here he was, entering the room. He looked messy, just as he always did when he first got up in the morning. She managed to hold in a snapped rebuke for his not even bothering to brush his hair this morning as always. Being a mother was _far_ tougher than breaking into a heavily guarded Pokémon Breeding Center.

"Hi Ash! How are you?" she asked, with her best and most warm smile.

"Fine, I think." Ash sat down at the table and turned to look at his Pokémon. "Guys, could you go to another room for a while? I need to speak with my mother... in private."

"Chiko-kori-chi-ta?" (Are you _sure_?) Chikorita asked, looking at the woman who smelt more and more like some kind of Ditto the more the Plant-type focussed her senses on her.

Ash told Chikorita he was sure, and two Pokémon walked out, looking nervously at Delilah.

Delilah noticed the seriousness in her son's face, and she sat down. Now they were face to face. He breathed in deeply, trying to summon his courage and his determination.

"Mom, first, I want say that I understand the reason why you have hidden..." Ash sought the right word, "your condition."

"Thank you Ash."

"Second, I would like to ask you some questions."

"Sure. What do you want to know?"

The young Pokémon Trainer looked his mother in the eye, grabbed all his courage in both hands and leapt into the breach. "Well... what are the chances that I will become you know, like you?"

Delilah had been waiting for that question. She had to admire the subtle way with that Ash had asked if he would become a mutant freak like her. She knew that that would worry Ash; hell, that possibility would worry _anyone_ who was halfway sane. Fortunately, she already had an answer ready (that even managed to be a partial truth) to reassure him.

"Absolutely zero. Since you are a test tube baby, you don't have my mutant genes."

Ash hid his relief well, but then his brain caught up with what his mother said and he blinked.

"One moment! Do you mean that _I am a test tube baby?_"

She nodded. Ash was confused. "But then... _why_ did you tell me stories about my father, that he was a Pokémon Trainer, and all? If I'm a test tube baby..."

Delilah couldn't stop herself from smiling in amusement. "But you _do_ have a father, Ash. Where do you think the sperm came from?"

"_Oh!_ Oh, sure... I hadn't thought of that..." Ash murmured, going bright red in a combination of embarrassment and shame. He always acted like this when "adult subject" came up in any discussion. Delilah especially remembered her _long_ discussion with Ash about that dream he had about Misty now _that_ had been painful. He had almost been as frightened then as he was now.

"But, Mom... even so, the ovum came from _you!_ How can you be so sure that I don't have your mutation, no offense, ok?"

"Because... the ovum was also donated. I'm completely sterile, Ash... I don't even menstruate," she murmured, seeming embarrassed and more than a little ashamed to have to admit to such a detail. Ash blushed again and looked away in shame. _What a wonderful mother you are,_ her inner voice asked, ironically and sadistically. _How easily you lie to your precious son._

Meanwhile, Ash decided to pass for the next topic. One that was a cause of even more trauma for a growing teenage boy. "When you... well, when you changed... your clothes _transformed_ too. Does that mean that your clothes, actually, _are part of your body?_"

"Yes. For the last sixteen years," she replied.

Ash's chin dropped and his face blushed in horror when he understood what her answer, so easily and casually delivered, meant. "Do you mean then that you were naked... _that whole time?_"

Delilah shrugged easily. Technically it wasn't the case, but this was no time to lecture Ash on the mechanics of adaptive protein biology. The term 'naked' was accurate enough. "I suppose you could say that, yes," she replied.

For a few moments, Delilah could not understood why Ash was so embarrassed by her answer. The boy nearly _died_ on the spot! He went bright red and looked away from her, sweat beginning to bead on his brow. Then it dawned on her... _Dear God!_ She realised that she _really_ owed Ash a _very good_ explanation...

"Well, Ash... would you go to the trouble of having to put on and take off clothes, if you could just make them to appear on your body?" she said, sounding a little defensive. "To tell the truth... it is actually easier to create the appearance of fabric than the appearance of skin. The textures, colours and patterns are so much more regular"

Delilah realised that Ash wasn't listening. Nor was he looking at her. Indeed he was staring entirely in the other direction and he was wearing an expression of utter panic.

"Wah... Mom... Could you use _real_ clothes from now on? _Please?_"

Delilah's eyes showed her surprise with the request. "I beg your pardon?" she asked.

At that moment the phone rang, and Ash looked comically relieved. "I'll get it!" Ash ran from the kitchen, leaving a confused Delilah staring in his wake.

"Ash!" She called after him.

When she realised he wasn't coming back, she sighed and leaned back. She couldn't blame him for his reaction. Every time he had touched her clothed back, he had touched her skin. As a child, when he had hugged himself to her, he had been touching a naked woman Well, _it_ was a lot for a teenage boy to handle.

Delilah stood and looked at her reflection in the kitchen windows. She felt that her recreation of a woman aged about 30 was quite good. She had deliberately not factored in too many age-related features (she had _some_ vanity), but overall she was pleased with the look. _Maybe Ash would calm down if I tried a different look,_ she thought impishly.

Delilah concentrated and her clothes and hair begin to blur into her blue gel-like default appearance and reform. When they regained the appearance of clothes and hair, she was wearing a yellow tank top and a pair of jeans cut off at her thighs and held up by a pair of red braces. Her hair had re-styled itself into a tightly pinned cap of hair with a shoulder-length ponytail extending from just above her left ear. Delilah grinned before returning to her preferred clothes and hairdo. _Agent Omega, you are one sick, SICK individual,_ she told herself.

One week later, Ash and Delilah were in Cerulean City, amongst the guests celebrating the marriage of Misty's sister, Violet Simone Williams and Pokémon Trainer Rudy Vanderberg, expert in Water-type Pokémon.

Ash and Misty had met Rudy during their journey through the Orange Archipelago. Misty and Rudy were quite interested in each other but, for some reason (and Ash never stopped thanking God for this), Misty chose to keep journeying with Ash. Still, Ash had to admire the fact that Rudy didn't give up easily. He came all the way to Cerulean to take another shot at wooing Misty, but she, Ash and Brock were in Johto by then. Instead, he met Violet, who tried to soothe his disappointment at missing Misty and the rest was straight out of those syrupy romance stories that Misty liked so much... Ash was very happy that Rudy, who was a nice guy really, had found someone to share his life with. He was even happier that he was marrying Misty's _sister_.

Still, the whole situation had evoked emotions that made Ash feel uncomfortable. As uncomfortable as his mother clearly was right now. "Mom, stop fidgeting!" Ash whispered to his mother. "And try to _smile_ for God's sake!"

Delilah moved again, feeling trapped in the elegant midnight blue dress that she wore. After sixteen years without using clothes, wearing a dress was a novel experience for her... She had briefly considered re-forming herself around the dress, mimicking it and expelling the real thing in some dark corner. She didn't because she knew her son _needed_ to know she was wearing real clothing and because the thing was hired and she couldn't afford the fine for loss or damage.

Then the wedding march began and all the eyes went back to the entrance of the church. Violet entered, accompanied by a tall, black-haired man wearing a UN Defense Forces uniform, and a very serious and cold expression. Ash knew that that man was General Kent Lanning Williams, Misty and her sisters' father.

_God, what an expression!_ Ash thought, not understanding what was happening. _Looking at him, you'd think he was being led to his execution instead of giving his daughter away in marriage!_

***

Later, the party of the year took place in the Cascade Gym, one that everyone who was anyone in Cerulean City was celebrating at. Well, everybody except a girl who had turned 16 just one month ago. She was seated on a bench outside of the Gym.

The girl was feeling very lonely and unhappy, so she was glad when felt a hand touch her shoulder.

"Hey Misty. Would it like a glass of juice?" Ash asked, giving her a glass of orange juice. Daisy, Misty's oldest sister and the organiser of the party, would strangle them both if they ever _thought_ of drinking something stronger (beyond the one small and _strictly_ monitored glass they both had for the toast to the new couple).

"Thank you, Ash." Misty smiled and Ash's heart almost stopped.

She was dressed in a simple, but elegant, peach-coloured bridesmaid's dress. Her ginger hair was free of its' usual weird style and flowed freely down to waist level, some curling forward to frame her face. She wore a small flower in her hair, just over her right ear, and Daisy had done her usual professional job on make-up. The first time that Ash had seen her like this was when Violet arrived at the church. At that moment, Ash suddenly realised what Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy did for Brock. Delilah had to stop him from jumping over the pews to get closer to Misty, and now, with her face lit up by the moonlight, Ash's brain was in serious danger of overloading and shutting down due to the strength of his emotions. For the first time in his life, he wished that he were older...

"Ash?"

"Huh? What, Misty?"

"Are you ok?"

"Sure!" _I am not Brock! I am not Brock! I am not Brock!_ he thought over and over again, trying not to start drooling. "Why are you here outside?"

She sighed. "I was just thinking about stuff."

"Like what?" Ash noticed that something bothering Misty; after nearly four years of spending almost all his time around her, he had learned to read her body language.

"You had to have seen that my father and my sisters don't... get on very well with each other."

Ash didn't want to comment on his friend's family, but since Misty herself brought up the subject...

"Yes, I noticed." He said finally. "With respect, Misty, he doesn't seem to be very happy being here."

"You are right. Actually, that is the first time in ten years that I and my sisters have seen him."

Ash almost choked on his juice. "_Huh?_'"

Misty sighed again and continued in a low, dispirited tone. "Have I told you that my mother died when I was born?"

"Yes." Ash said gently. He remembered that night in Goldenrod City. Misty had sent him to her backpack to fetch Togepi's Pokéball, and he had, by accident, found a photo of a brunette in a swimsuit with the markings of a member of the Elite Four and those of a Pokémon Master. The woman had an incredible likeness to Misty. Misty told him that the photo was of Rosemary Oceana-Williams, a famous oceanographer and the previous leader of the Cascade Gym. Misty had told him about her death, which was due to complications from childbirth, Misty's birth. It was the very first time Ash could ever recall his tough-natured friend crying in his presence.

"Well, Daddy has never said anything, but I know that he blames us for Mom's death..." Misty looked at for the friend, tears threatening to escape her eyes. "He blames the pressure that Mom suffered, having to take care of us as well as taking care of the gym... and I know that he blames _me_..."

"Misty..." Ash said, hugging his friend. He wanted to make her feel better, but was at a loss as to what he should say.

"I would do _anything_ to make him love us again," Misty murmured through her tears. "I would do anything to make him love _me_"

Without them knowing, somebody had heard them, somebody that was about a hundred meters from them, somebody that they could not see.

_She would do __anything__ to get her father's love. Including turning __you__ and __your son__ over to him as weapons for him to use in his wars,_ the inner voice of Omega hissed at Delilah Ketchum. She had left the party for a while to get some fresh air. Her genetically modified body had adapted to the night immediately and, in what to her were near-daylight conditions, she had seen Ash and Misty talking at once. A combination of instinct and motherly concern made her mimic the superb hearing of a Zubat. And she heard everything both teenagers said with perfect clarity.

"She would never do that!" Delilah murmured to that hateful inner voice.

_Would you bet __your__ life on it?_ Omega sneered. _Would you bet __his__ life on it?_

"Shut up!" she snapped at the night. As much as Delilah hated to admit it, however, the voice had a point. "Better safe than sorry" was a motto that had got her and her Field Team out of far more bad situations than she cared to recall. She resolved to have an urgent discussion with Ash when they got home.

Her eyes, which had been glowing green with a hint of snake-like slitted pupils, returned to their normal brown colour. The only hint that there was anything unusual about Delilah now was the fact her pupils glowed like a cat's when the light hit them at the right angle.

That night, a meeting was taking place in the hidden headquarters of the Team Rocket organisation. Scott and Jean, two White Rockets responsible for the organisation's surveillance satellites were showing their latest discovery to a man with his face hidden in the shadows, the leader of Team Rocket.

Scott coughed nervously. He was thinking that the data that he taken a week to process would still require a lot of courage to show to his Boss.

"Well, sir, this was what our satellite spy, the Venonat-G3, sighted while it was over Pallet Town, in the North Region of Indigo Continent." The man pressed a button and an infrared image appeared on the big screen.

The image shows a winged form, of the size of a human being, flying in direction of the Pallet-Viridian Fault." Jean explained. "Five minutes later, the being detected by the satellite flew in the direction of Pallet Town, as this image shows." A similar image appeared. "The interesting thing is that the main body of the object has a very low body heat, similar to that of a large Ditto, but on the return flight, you can see it is carrying something with body heat that matches that of a human."

The Boss spent a few moments considering the images on the main screen before asking a question that sounded like a demand: "Normal Light Photos?"

"Sir, you should understand that the Venonat-G3 is one of our older satellites. The visible-light imaging resolution is inferior the infrared images and"

"_Show_ it," the Boss snapped, not interested in a lecture.

The image showed, in a very low resolution, a person with wings and flesh seemingly made out of some kind of clear blue material that shone in the reflected moonlight like polythene. Scott and Jean could not see the Boss's reaction, and he stayed silent, not giving them a clue as to what he thought.

"Sir, do you want us to change the orbit of the DarkArticuno 2 so it will over-fly Pallet Town?"

"No. It is not worthwhile," the Boss said. "A change in its' orbit would impede our monitoring of the migration route of the Gyarados in the Orange Archipelago. Besides, we will have to be impossibly lucky to have another incident like this one." He turned his back to his agents. "Leave."

After the two Rockets left, Giovanni Carpenter buried his face in his hands. He stayed like this for several minutes but, for him, they seemed _hours_. Finally, the man sat down in his leather chair opened the right drawer of his desk. There was just one thing inside: a photo.

Her younger sister had taken it during a New Year's Eve party, eighteen years ago. On it, a young Giovanni, a proud Red Rocket, hugged a beautiful redheaded White Rocket, older than him, but youthful still in how vivaciously _alive_ she was. They were hugging very tightly, and the mischievous gleam in their eyes showed that there was something very serious happening between them. Giovanni could still remember the warmth of her body so closer to his and that unique scent that she wore. He remembered the soul-shredding horror he felt when his mother told him what she had ordered done to her, 'for the good of the Cause,' and the feel of the butt of the gun that he pressed between her lifeless automaton eyes to kill someone to set them free

If Giovanni were still a whole man, rather than the empty shell that years of criminal activity and the casual ruination of innumerable innocent lives had left him, he would have cried.

Instead, he just looked at the roof and spoke, completely without irony. "Then you are still alive? Congratulations!" He sighed and shook his head. "I just don't know if I _thank_ you for that or if I _hate_ you for that..."

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	5. The Mark of Omega

The Omega Mutation - chapter 5

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

_**Chapter 5 – The Mark of Omega**_

In a dark room of a isolated house in the outskirts of Pallet Town, a woman in black read the text in Portuguese that appeared on the screen of her computer: 

_"Amor é fogo que arde sem se ver;   
É ferida que dói e não se sente;   
É um contentamento descontente;   
É dor que desatina sem doer."_

She sighed and leaned back in her chair, wishing that she had hair she could run her fingers through in frustration (the 'hair' on her head was an extension of her flesh, which she could shape and fashion like any other part of her body. Touching it always made her feel uncomfortable).

One of the few good things that came of her time as a Team Rocket agent had been the intensive training with languages that she had received: she knew how to speak ten languages perfectly (not counting the languages spoken by the 251 species of Pokémon. She had learned _them_ in the strangest of ways as Agent Omega). Her work as a book translator, it was one of the few civilian jobs that she knew how to do ("mercenary," "assassin" and "thief" were not choices that appealed to her as a mother). Unfortunately, she _wasn't_ in the mood for it right now, so it would have to wait.

Delilah saved the file and shut down her computer. Rising from her work desk, she began to pace to and fro, her strange liquid-based body flowing smoothly from position to position in the semi-gloom of her study. She had not discussed with Ash the worries that had occurred to her while listening to Misty's heartbroken dreams at Violet's wedding reception.

How the hell was she _supposed_ to do it, anyway? _'Excuse me, Ash, but I don't think that is a good idea you tell Misty the truth about me. It is quite likely she would hand us over to her father as a "let's make up" gift.'_ Ash would be very offended if she even tried to suggest something like that. After all, he might not admit it, but his feelings for Misty were becoming more and more important to him with every passing month... Still

She made a decision.

* * * * * * *

Ash read a comic book in the bed, while Pikachu, sitting on the floor, was eating his Pika-chow. Then Ash heard a knock on the door.

"Ash?"

"Yeah, come in, Mom."

Delilah opened the door. Ash noticed that she was in what she referred to as her 'default' form. She had explained that, like a Ditto, she had to expend energy to take and maintain any other form. It still made him feel a little nervous, seeing his mother rendered in that alien blue gel-like fluid, but it didn't bother him so much any more. She was wearing a black knee-length raincoat, tightly belted to spare her modesty and Ash's nerves. Ash wasn't the most perceptive of boys, but he had realised that this was the only item of clothing that his mother really felt _comfortable_ wearing. So, when they were at home and without any guests, he graciously allowed her to wear it or just morph her skin into clothing if she wanted to. It was another aspect of his mother's nature that he was slowly becoming used to. It rather alarmed him how easy it was to come to terms with a habitually naked mother.

Delilah stuck her hands in her pockets. "Hi, Ash," she said with her usual easy-going kindness, "are you busy? I need to have a quick talk with you."

"Sure!" Ash sat up and gestured for her to enter and sit down at his desk opposite his bed.

Delilah entered the room, noting that Pikachu still eyed her nervously. She had decided that the little electric mouse wasn't afraid of her, but was afraid of something she _represented_. She just wished she could figure out what that was.

Ash frowned, noticing that his mother seemed nervous and preoccupied. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Yes, Ash." She admitted, her slitted green alien eyes looking into his chocolate brown eyes. "I have to talk to you about something very important."

Pikachu leaped in his trainer's lap, sensing his concern. "About what?" Ash asked.

_It is now or never, Omega._ Delilah thought. "Ash, you said that you understood the reason why I have hidden... you know what."

"Yes. I do understand, Mom."

"Okay," Delilah said. She sighed, crossed her legs and looked at her child with a serious expression. "Then I think that you will understand why I will ask you this. Ash, I don't want you to tell your friends about my condition. Not Brock, not Tracey and not even Misty." _Especially not Misty,_ she added silently.

Ash frowned deeply and leaned back. "Mom," he protested after a moment, "I trust them. They would never do anything to hurt you."

Delilah sighed. "I'm sure that you do trust them, darling," she said. "But you remember how _you_ reacted when you first found out?" Ash grimaced, remembering his wild run through the woods. "Can you really be sure they wouldn't panic when they found out?"

Ash sighed gently. He hated the thought of hiding anything from his friends. On the other hand, he understood her reasons. "Ok. I won't tell them anything." He declared. "I mean... I know that the others might not understand that being 'different' does not automatically mean that you are a danger to them." Ash subconsciously moved the comic books piled up next to him.

On the front cover of a reprint of a sixty-year-old _X-Men_ story, four Prime Sentinel cyborgs were ripping the roof off the heroes' Blackbird aircraft and the title _"Operation: Zero Tolerance"_ blared out of the cover. Yes, there were many people whose hatred, and _fear_, of the unknown made them contemplate extreme measures.

"Anyway," Ash continued after his moment of introspection, "we really can't spread this news about much anyway. Considering your powers, there are a lot of organisations that would love to get some kind of control over you... maybe the UN Defence Forces or Team Rocket..."

Delilah reacted with alarm at hearing _that_ name spoken in this context. "Why did you mention Team Rocket?" she asked, a little too sharply.

Ash didn't understand her fright. "Huh...? Well, because Team Rocket is the largest terrorist organisation in the world! They would love to put their dirty hands on you..." Ash suddenly fell silent as his admittedly slow wits finally caught up with the situation. He jumped to his feet in excitement. "IT'S THAT, ISN'T IT?" he shouted. "You're afraid that Team Rocket would capture you, aren't you?"

_You can't even imagine how much,_ Delilah thought, smiling weakly in embarrassment. "Yes, you're right." she said. 

Ash smiled at his mother and stood a little straighter and prouder. "Don't worry, Mom. Pikachu and I will protect you! Right, Pikachu?"

The electric mouse nodded, sweat-dropping with nervousness.

"Thank you, Ash." She smiled, sweat-dropping at the very thought. She _knew_ that her son meant that with all his heart and soul...

After a few minutes of listening to her son's reassurances, Delilah left him to plot defensive strategies with Pikachu, Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile. "My God! How does he do _that?_" she thought, stunned. When he told her that he would protect her from Team Rocket, he had been in a heroic pose, which in any other person would seem ridiculous, but that was _perfect_ for him. She didn't understand why that should be. It was as if Ash had vocation to be a _hero_ or something like that. _I don't know who he inherited that from,_ she thought. _Because I know that he didn't inherit it from __me__._ She concluded that being only too aware of who and _what_ she had been in the past...

********

James Morgan didn't understand _what_ he was doing here, in a deep, dark hole in the Earth. Jessie Gibson and he had been suddenly recalled to the Team Rocket base, near Viridian City, where they received orders directly from the Boss himself to investigate every cubic metre of the interior of the Pallet-Viridian Fault... in search of _what?_

"A very special Ditto," Domino, the most deadly of Team Rocket's agents had said in a dry, ironic tone of voice.

So there he was, hanging from a high-tensile steel cable about 1½ miles below the surface of the earth, clutching a thermal imaging camera and a parabolic microphone like an idiot. This deep below the surface of the earth not a hint of the twilight above penetrated. The geothermal processes occurring another three miles below him made the interior of the fault uncomfortably warm, and all the Ampharos in the world could light up the space around him. It was so bad, that James was sure that he wouldn't even know if he were hanging upside down.

"So Jessie? Has anything appeared?" He asked through the radio.

One-and-a-half miles above, Jessie was sitting by a bank of monitors (showing visual and thermal images from James' camera) and listening to a pair of headphones (that were relaying the sounds from the parabolic mike). "Nothing." She informed her partner, feeling bored. "Of course, it would help if we knew _what_ we were looking for." They had been at this for hours and Jessie was getting tired of looking at rock walls and listening to the sound of geological processes that sounded too much like her empty stomach...

_"Jessie! I'm hungry!"_ James whined, the edge of his irritating voice only made worse by the static on the radio link.

"Meowth! Me too!" the third member of the team shot in.

"Shut up, both of you!" Jessie snapped. "Remember that the Boss ordered us to search that hole completely!" At that moment, Jessie's stomach suddenly growled like a tractor engine. "Well..." she said with a blush of embarrassment. "Maybe we can take some time off for a quick snack."

_"I agree whole-heartedly!"_ James said through the radio. _"Mmm donuts"_

Jessie rolled her eyes at her partner's culinary obsessions. She hit the switch that would winch James back up to ground level. It should only take about thirty minutes for him to reach the surface again "No donuts, I'm afraid James," she replied. "I'll fix us something from our field rations."

"Uh, no offense, but I'd rather you didn't Jessie," Meowth said with a groan. "Da last time you cooked sometin' up, I lost one of Meowth's nine lives!"

Jessie scowled at that hideously old crack about that disastrous Foundation Day dinner (the Indigo equivalent of the Fourth of July) she had cooked for them five years ago. She _told_ them time and time again that the goose must have been rotten or something "Okay," she sighed. "We'll steal someone else's food then."

_"Yeah!"_ James replied enthusiastically. _"But where?"_

"Hey, the Twerp's house is near here..." Jessie remembered the delicious food that Ash's mother had prepared for the farewell dinner, when he gone to the Johto League, and that _they_ had eaten in his place... 

"Meowth! Let's go!"

_"Wait for me!"_ James implored. Jessie sighed and pressed the 'emergency turbo' button on the winch. The machine started making a noise like a tortured Beedrill and Jessie and Meowth could only watch in amazement as James was yanked out of the fault. His harness broke under the sudden acceleration and he was launched into the air.

"Hey, James can blast off wid out da Twoip's Pikachu shockin' 'im!" Meowth commented as James soared up with a despairing wail of fear.

Jessie nodded. "He isn't any more graceful this way," she added as James landed by the Jeep, and a very surprised Mondo, with a loud 'thump.'

**********

Later, they were outside of the Ketchum's house, at the hour in that Delilah served dinner. The smell of the food was driving them crazy! Even through her roaring appetite, Jessie noticed that the Twerp's mother was wearing a black raincoat that made her look like a spy or something. _Weird!_ Shrugging it off, Jessie began to tell James and Meowth her plan.

Delilah and Ash were eating in silence. Delilah was still thinking of the chat that she had with him when she heard a noise, one so faint that only she could hear. Her eyes flashed brightly and turned green. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Ash asked confused.

Suddenly the window broke and a smoke grenade detonated in the middle of the table.

_"What the hell?"_ Delilah snapped as visibility dropped to zero.

"James, grab the food!" They heard a woman's voice say.

"Team Rocket?" Ash exclaimed, his voice touched with fear. He caught a Pokéball. "Pidgeotto, I choose you!" The flying-type Pokémon appeared in a flash of red light. "Tornado Attack!" Ash commanded.

The attack dispersed most of the smoke, revealing Jessie and Meowth, carrying two sacks full of food and James, holding Pikachu, prisoner in a plastic cage. After so many years of painful experience, Jessie had learnt that action was more important that posturing.

"Arbok, tail whip!"

The Poison-type Pokémon's attack struck Ash on the head, throwing him against the wall. He slumped to the ground, unconscious and bleeding from his nose and a deep cut on his temple. "Great work, Arbok," Jessie cried in excitement and disbelief. "Meowth, grab his other Pokémon, quickly!" In their excitement, all three had ignored Delilah. This was a great mistake, and in the seconds that followed, it almost became a _fatal_ mistake.

Meowth ran towards the unconscious Ash, but he didn't get even half way across the room before an utterly inhuman voice screamed _"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!"_

Jessie and James both looked up, just in time to see a female humanoid form rendered in blue gel-like fluid launch itself over the dinner table towards them. What caught their attention were the creature's _eyes_. They were green and slitted like an Arbok's and they _glowed_ from within with an unholy power that froze their minds and bodies. 

Driven by her protective maternal instincts, combined with the powers and training that made the name 'Omega' a feared one in Team Rocket two decades ago, Delilah launched herself at the three intruders, who were paralysed with terror. She grabbed the light fitting over the table and caught Jessie and James around the throat with her _feet_. She used her momentum to slam the two humans' heads against the ceiling and then smash them into the floor. She then somersaulted off of the light fitting, bounced off of the far wall, and sent Meowth tumbling across the room with a flying drop kick.

Stunned, but still conscious, Jessie and James finally reacted to this sudden terrifying apparition.

"Weezing, use Smokescreen!"

"Arbok, use Venom Dart!"

Visibility in the room dropped down to zero again and Arbok reared up, launching a hail of venom-laced darts from her mouth at the creature that attacked her Trainer and her Trainer's special friends. In the smog, all Jessie saw was a bright blue-white flash as the Venom Darts hit a Thunder Shield defence and disintegrated. Then something like nothing she had ever seen before darted through the smog towards Arbok. It looked like a Raichu but it had the wings of a Golbat and a tongue of flame, like that of a Charmander, burned at the tip of its' lightning-bolt-shaped tail.

The hybrid Pokémon launched a Lightning Bolt attack that sent Arbok reeling back, then landed before the stunned Arbok and fired a Thunder-shock attack that knocked the snake-like Poison-type unconscious.

Jessie and James grabbed the food and made to retreat. "Weezing, help Arbok," James shouted over his shoulder.

Weezing swept forward, firing a Sludge attack at the monstrous hybrid Pokémon before him. The creature didn't turn; rather it _flowed_ like a liquid sculpture, reversing its' position by sending its' front flowing _through_ its' back, and then it was facing him. It spat a fireball that evaporated his attack and then launched a Firestorm attack that nearly knocked him out.

Jessie, James and Meowth, meanwhile, were halfway to the door when something suddenly grabbed them, something like vine whips, but rendered in blue gel-like fluid. The impossibly strong tentacles threw them back across the room and into the rear wall.

As they watched, Arbok and Weezing bravely charged the liquid blue female humanoid figure standing in the center of the room, but it was futile. The figure waggled her finger, as if in reproof, and then a Metronome attack blew both Pokémon across the room, so badly hurt that it would take a full day's rejuvenation to recover from their injuries.

James helped Jessie get up. She grabbed the case containing the stunned Pikachu. They were about to run when the creature looked at them and opened her mouth. The Super-sonic attack blew out all the surviving windows in the room, shattered every glass fitting, shattered the case containing Pikachu and blew Jessie and James against the wall, hard enough to crack the plaster.

The figure flashed forward with inhuman speed and wrapped a hand around both Rockets' throats. She effortlessly hoisted them off of the ground and slammed them against the wall _hard_. "You had better pray that my son isn't badly hurt, _Flatscans_," she hissed. At that point, James suddenly recognised the face before him. It might have green serpentine eyes and be made entirely from blue fluid, but _it was_ _Delilah Ketchum_.

As they watched, an extra pair of arms extruded themselves from the Twerp's mother's sides. The arms lengthened and sharpened until they were the unmistakable, cruel hooked sabres of a Kabutops. The razor-sharp arms reached forward until they were touching the Rockets' chests, right over their hearts. "You see, if he _is_ badly hurt, then I will finally get a chance to taste a human," Delilah announced, smiling carnivorously.

James screamed in utter terror, flailing wildly at the monster in front of him in an attempt to escape. "Meowth! Help us!" Jessie screamed in utter panic.

Meowth pulled himself to his feet and launched himself at the nightmare holding his two friends. Delilah barely seemed to notice, but a pair of vine whips suddenly extruded from her shoulders and caught him mid-air.

"Bad pussy-cat," Delilah said in a serious tone of voice, without looking at him. She slammed Meowth's head against the ceiling, reversed her hold on him and banged his head against the floor until his body went limp. Then she threw him against the comatose Arbok and Weezing before turning back to Jessie and James. The two sabre-arms were pressing forwards. Although neither could feel any pain, they could feel the blood running down their chest from the shallow puncture wounds. Delilah glared at them. "Now, where were we?" she asked gently.

Jessie saw her death in the _monster_'s eyes and began to scream. James was crying; he lost control of his bladder and was close to fainting from utter terror. Meowth was still conscious, but he was so terrified of the creature (that he was certain was about to kill Jessie and James) that he couldn't move or speak. He could only lie against the unconscious forms of Arbok and Weezing, trembling in anticipation of what that _thing_ would do to him after it finished off his friends.

"Uh Mom?" Ash said groggily. Delilah's head snapped around and saw her son trying to rise. His nosebleed had stopped.

Hearing Ash's voice seemed to trigger a response in Delilah's head. She suddenly remembered who she was and was horrified when she realised that she had nearly killed the hapless pair of field agents before her. _What was I thinking?_ she thought in horror. Delilah retracted her extra 'arms' and released her stranglehold on Jessie and James, letting them fall to the floor.

She walked over to Ash, shifting to her 'human' form as she did so. She knelt before Ash and, much to her relief, saw that he was utterly uninjured, even though his shirt was covered in blood. She stood again and let her eyes return to their serpentine green form. "Run away," she said to Jessie and James in a blood-freezing tone of voice. "Start running _now_ and don't ever stop; because if you do, I will be standing at your shoulder ready to finish what we began tonight. Now _GO!_"

That was the final straw for Jessie, James and Meowth. Barely waiting long enough to recall Arbok and Weezing, they ran into the night, screaming like lost souls. They cared about nothing other than getting as far away from that _thing_ in the form of a woman as they could.

"Mom you can't let them go" he said, sounding a little concussed. "They'll tell Team Rocket about you"

Delilah hugged her child close. "Don't worry about that now," she said in a reassuring tone of voice. She held Ash as close as she could, determined to protect him from every threat, especially those he had to face because of _her_. Held tightly to his mother's bosom, Ash couldn't see the way her eyes narrowed dangerously, but he could feel the icy chill in her voice as she said, "Don't _ever_ worry about _that_"

************

Later, Jessie and James were in the hospital ward of Team Rocket's Viridian City Base, being constantly watched by the stunned doctors. The head doctor, Dr. MacCarron, was forced to sedate them and restrain them in strait-jackets to stop them from hurting themselves in their desperate attempts to keep running away from the thing that had so terrified them, _whatever_ that was.

Meowth was in another ward, hooked up to a rejuvenation machine, but he was also sedated and strapped down.

Despite a level of sedatives that would put a Gyarados into a coma, all three were still experiencing terrifying continual nightmares, according to the EKG monitors and their thrashing against their restraints. Whatever they had seen had driven three being who, previously, had been fairly normal to the point of insanity.

Meanwhile, their assistant, Mondo Treleaven, was in the Control Center of the base, being watched by Butch, Cassidy and the most deadly agent in the organisation, Domino. The Boss himself was debriefing him by an audio/video link from his office somewhere else in the building.

"Okay, Mondo, what _the hell_ happened?" Giovanni snapped.

Mondo swallowed dryly. "Uh, well, Boss _I don't know_!" he admitted nervously.

The young man heard the incredulous murmurs among the senior agents in the darkened briefing room. Sweating, Mondo knew that he had to give these assembled officers a _very good_ explanation for what happened, if he didn't want to face the consequences. He didn't want to get his friends in trouble... but what choice did he have?

"I... I... I went to the base camp at the fault to see if Jessie and James had anything to report," Mondo told them. "Jessie and James weren't there. I was just about to start searching when they came running towards me from the direction of the town. They were screaming, all three of them. I've never heard them sounding _so terrified_. They jumped into the jeep; James nearly threw me out of the driver's seat Then he started driving like a maniac, speeding through the forest at top speed without even bothering to turn on the headlights. All the time, Jessie and Meowth were screaming at him to go _faster_, that they had to get away from there. They kept babbling the same things over and over again"

"What kind of things?" Giovanni demanded.

Mondo prayed to whatever gods watched over terrorists' sidekicks. _Here goes!_ he thought. "Half of what they said made no sense, sir," Mondo said. "Meowth kept on talking about some kind of Pokémon that _wasn't_ a Pokémon, but was a combination of many different kinds, making it far more deadly. Jessie and James kept on screaming that the Twerp's mother had turned into _a monster_ and threatened to eat them alive, as if she was a werewolf or something."

"'The Twerp's mother? Who are you talking about, boy?"

"Ash Ketchum's mother, sir. Jessie and James calls him 'Twerp...'"

"Ash Ketchum? The current Global Pokémon League Champion?"

"Yes, sir."

Domino, Butch and Cassidy didn't bother to hide their contemptuous smiles. Ash's mother, that ditzy woman, a _werewolf?_ What _a joke!_ They always knew that Jessie and James were losers, but that was stretching the power of the lame excuse too far even for them!

In his office, Giovanni frowned thoughtfully, staring out at nothing. His response was completely unexpected. It is unlikely that even Mondo was more surprised than the three Black Rockets were at his softly spoken comment. "Yes I expected something like that. Thank you Mondo, you are dismissed."

"Sir?" Mondo asked in disbelief. _Did he say that he __expected__ this?_ Mondo thought in shock.

"What part of 'get out' don't you understand, boy," Giovanni snapped in an annoyed tone. This time Mondo executed the order immediately.

"Domino," Giovanni continued gently, "come to my office immediately. Cassidy and Butch, stay in the Briefing Room until Domino comes back. I have a new assignment for you all."

"Yes, sir!" the three Rockets said in unison.

Giovanni turned off the intercom. He couldn't stop thinking about the irony of the situation: the _only_ time in that he hoped Jessie and James _would _fail, those two idiots managed to inadvertently stumble backwards to a success!

Giovanni leaned back in his chair and began to plan his strategy, based on these new facts.

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...

_Note:_ If you are wondering, the text that Delilah was reading at the beginning of the chapter was the first stanza of a poem written by Luis of Camoes, a famous Portuguese poet of the time of discovery of America. Here is the translation to the English:

_"Love is fire that burns without seeing;  
It is hurt that hurts and don't feels;  
It is an unhappy happiness.  
It is pain that act foolish without hurting."_


	6. First Strike

The Omega Mutation chapter 6

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

_**Chapter 6 - First Strike**_

Delilah Ketchum was cleaning up the mess that was in her dining room after her fight with those two Team Rocket Agents. She was doing that alone, because she had ordered Ash go to his bed after she had bound his head (and, Delilah recalled with a smile, he obviously didn't like hearing _that_ one bit...). The fact that he was not bleeding didn't matter: he _had_ been hurt, and that was already _more_ than enough for her.

It was already late at night when she finished that task, but she was not very tired. One of the little good things in having been transformed into Omega was that she had very little need for sleep... She went to her bedroom and lay on the bed, but she didn't sleep immediately. There was something that bothered her. Firstly, her own reaction: she didn't need to reveal her power to Jessie and James, but the moment that they hurt Ash, those two... _Flatscans_ had touched the most savage part of her nature... a part that only Omega could reach...

Secondly, there was that red-haired Team Rocket agent: Delilah had the annoying feeling that she had known that woman... Of course, she had known _of_ Jessie Gibson for three years now. She and her partner, James Morgan, had been stalking Ash virtually since he started his Journey, but having been so close to the woman having _touched_ her, allowing her powers to sample the woman's DNA and bio-electric field... Delilah got the impression that she knew the fiery redhead, indeed that she had _always_ known her

Trying to forget the subject, she began to sleep.

== == == == ==

A loud sound in her ears and Delilah woke up inside of a Containment Chamber. _What in the hell was she doing there?_ Filled with fear, she broke the glass with a single punch. The Chamber broke open and the colourless fluid within flooded out into the corridor. She looked at the clothing that she wore: it was her blue uniform! Looking around, she recognised the place where she was: you don't forget Hell when you had lived there once. She was in Team Rocket's main R&D Laboratories.

Delilah grabbed her head in her hands, desperately trying to understand what was happening, when she heard a horrible, frightening scream. A scream of fear of a voice that she would recognise _anywhere_: it was _Ash!_

She ran through the corridors of the damned place, searching for her son.

She arrived at a window, which showed a laboratory. There, a scientist, the same one that had transformed Delilah into Omega, operated a control panel, connected to another containment chamber. A 14 year-old boy floated inside of it, his eyes filled with fear and pain.

"Ash!" she screamed, trying to break the glass of the window.

"Began the Reconstruction." The scientist ordered.

An electric current began to pass through Ash's body.

_"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!"_

== == == == ==

Ash woke up. He heard a scream coming from his mother's bedroom. In seconds, he was beside her. She writhed in her bed in the grip of a nightmare.

"Mom! Mom! _Wake up_!" Ash shouted, shaking his mother hard in his efforts.

Suddenly, his mother's right arm flowed like liquid into one of the deadly claws of a Scyther. With an inhumanly fast blur of motion she lunged forward at him. Then, Delilah woke up and she opened her eyes.

The "blade" was stuck in the wall... just a centimetre from the head of her son.

"Ash, I..." Delilah gasped in horror. _What have I done?_

He opened and closed his mouth, but the utter terror he felt robbed him of the power of speech. His knees buckled and he collapsed at the base of the wall, his eyes blank and staring.

Delilah hugged him. "Oh Ash, please, _forgive me_!" she implored the terrified boy. _"God, please, please, please"_

== == == == ==

Three days after that incident, Delilah began to reinforce the security of her house. The natural isolation of their home protected them from casual onlookers, but not from a planned assault of the kind that Team Rocket would use. Now, the knowledge she had acquired to _break_ security systems, plus a little reverse engineering, helped her turn her home into a fortress.

Ash was outside, training his Pokémon in defence strategies. At least, that was the reason that he had given her. In her opinion, he was still afraid of her, whether he wanted to admit that or not...

"Are you ready, Mr. Mime?" She asked her Pokémon.

"Mi-mi, Mime-Mime!" [Yes, Delie!]

She held back a laugh. Mr. Mime had never got her name right!

Both raised a door made from 4-centimetres-thick metallic alloy. While her Pokémon held his end of the heavy door with difficulty, Delilah didn't even break sweat (not that she did that anymore, her body had far more efficient methods of heat dissipation). They took the door to the doorway that separated the garage from the kitchen. In that moment, Mr. Mime fell from pure exhaustion. She smiled at her little friend.

"That's ok, rest a little, Mimey. I can take care of that door."

She lifted the door in one hand as if she held a paper leaf and placed in the appropriate place. Then, she morphed her left arm into an Electabuzz's arm. She generated an electrical arc between her thumb and forefinger, using it as a makeshift welder to attach the door to the doorway. Now that her son knew about her "ability", she didn't need use those stupid tools... Delilah admired her work for some time, before moving on to install the next door.

But what she and Ash didn't know was that they were being watched. A Rattata, with a camera equipped with zoom lens installed on its backs, observed everything that happened in the Ketchum's property; including what could be viewed through the windows. The image was transmitted to a truck four kilometres away. Officially, the truck was from Integrated Communications, a communications company that belonged to the Rockettech Corporation. Actually, the vehicle was owned by Team Rocket.

Inside of the truck, a team of three people observed everything.

"Inform the Boss that we have visual confirmation." A blond woman ordered her subordinates, a blond young woman and a green haired young man. After Butch and Cassidy left to return to the driver's cabin, Domino observed the images with a scornful smile.

"So, this was the why you betrayed Team Rocket? To be a _housewife?_" she asked in a murmur to the image of the red-haired woman's on the screen.

Domino remembered Omega, called "The most powerful agent in Team Rocket."

She remembered when he had known Omega, seventeen years ago. Domino was still a trainee when, with her field team, she went to the basketball court in a Team Rocket Base in the Orange Islands. She had found a tall red-haired woman, wearing a strange blue uniform, shooting baskets all alone.

Joey, a colleague of Domino, had ordered that redhead to leave the court. After a long pause, the blue-uniformed woman suggested that _they_ should leave the court because (and she said this in an incredibly matter-of-fact tone of voice) "Pain tends to hurt a lot." Angry, they tried to fight with her, but the woman knocked all six of them down in seconds without even breaking a sweat. When the terrified field agents went for their Pokéballs, the communication screen suddenly lit up. It was the Madam Boss!

"Omega, come to my office... _Now!_"

"Yes, Madam." she said in that strange, emotionless tone of voice.

The woman called Omega went in direction of the exit, carrying a basketball. Then, just as she reached the exit, without turn back, she threw the ball with an idle toss across the court and into the far basket at an _impossible_ range. Then, Omega left, leaving a sextet of amazed young Rockets behind her.

Later, Domino was informed that Omega had died on an assignment, but there were rumours that actually she had fled after murdering an Elite Rocket assigned to her as a 'bodyguard.' 

Meanwhile, Domino had risen in the organisation until _she_ was the best Rocket agent. But she knew that they whispered in the corridors that she was _nothing_ compared to Agent Omega. That after all these years, the Arch-traitor was still the best...

"Well, dear, now we will see _who_ is the best!" Domino thought.

== == == == ==

Mondo Treleaven, Jessie Gibson and James Morgan's old assistant, looked at the ceiling of his room, thinking of the visit that had made to his friends.

Finally, after nine days after the incident in Pallet Town, they were in a condition to receive visitors. Jessie still slept, although the nightmares were less frequent now. Meanwhile, James was awake, with an expression of extreme fatigue. Mondo got the impression that the lavender-haired man didn't dare close his eyes at the moment, let alone sleep.

"How are you, James?"

"Tired... Mondo, I'm sorry about what happened the other night."

"That's all right, James, but... James, what _really_ happened?"

At that moment, Jessie began tossing on her bed, murmuring: "Mommy, make it go _away_..."

James and Mondo changed glances. She only mentioned her late mother when she was very, _very_ afraid. Without saying a word, Mondo went over to Jessie's backpack that was leaning on the wall, took out a small rag-doll and gave to the sleeping woman. Jessie hugged it tightly and her sleep became more peaceful.

James looked in Mondo's eyes. "You asked me what happened. Well, you don't want to know, old friend." The look in James' eyes was that of a man who had nearly lost his soul. He continued in a whisper. "You _don't want to know._"

Mondo closed the eyes, ready to sleep, when his communicator buzzed. Curious, he accepted the call. A voice that he didn't know said something that left his eyes wide and staring.

=============

At the side of the truck of Integrated Communications, several Black Rockets, disguised as the company employees, awaited the permission to begin the mission. Meanwhile, Domino talked with the base, trying to understand the instructions from her Boss.

"But, sir, if we catch the boy, she..."

"She would destroy you immediately!" Giovanni said, coldly. "There noting more dangerous than an angry mother," he continued in a sarcastic voice, "especially one with genes from a Kangashan spliced into her DNA. You will keep to the original plan, _do you understand?_"

"Yes, sir!"

"You have permission to continue. And remember, Omega should be captured _alive_." Giovanni cut the communication. In the silence of his office, he observed two photos. One was his photo with Delilah, at that time in that she was a Team Rocket Agent. The other was a photo taken in the end of the Johto League of 2062, when Ash Ketchum had won, and it showed Ash and Delilah hugging. The expression in the face of the Leader of Team Rocket was completely indecipherable.

==========

An orange-haired girl pedalled for the Route 3 in direction Pallet Town. She closed the blue denim jacket that she wore, due to the cold. The small egg-like Pokémon, which was in her backpack, woke up.

"Togi-togi-priii-priii!"

"Shh, Togepi. We'll stop for a rest soon enough."

Her trip from Cerulean City to Viridian City had been delayed more than she had expected. A landslide had forced her to take a detour through the Route North 3, instead of the Viridian Highway. Now already it was late in the night.

Misty closed the eyes. She didn't want to have to camp again! Not in the woods with the cold and the _bugs!_ Even the thought made a finger of phobic terror run down her spine. Then she remembered that Ash's house was close of there, in a few used bypass of the Route 3... Perhaps Mrs. Ketchum didn't mind if she appeared, even so late of the night.

The Cerulean City Trainer didn't notice the truck with the blue and gold logotype of IC, parked in the highway.

=========

Delilah heard the sound immediately. She reacted immediately and she rose before five Team Rocket fighters, known as "Dan'in" appeared, breaking through the window of her bedroom. _Next time, put in the bullet-proof glass first_, Delilah told herself. At least four men in charcoal-grey uniforms were trying to hold her down while an identically dressed woman tried to place a mask on her face.

"Hold her so that I can anaesthetise her!"

Before they had the chance, Delilah _flowed_ under them and _reformed_ her body on the other side of the room, assuming her default form. The sight of her doing that they froze the five terrorist fighters on the spot. They didn't move again until Delilah spat out a Water Gun attack that flushed them all out of the window like the toilet waste they were.

Hearing the voices of more Rockets that were coming from the ground floor, she ran for her son's bedroom. He was just opening the door, when Delilah closed the door with a single backhanded blow. "Mom!" Ash shouted in protest.

"Ash, whatever you do, _don't leave_ your bedroom!" She implored, in a tone that didn't invite debate.

When she saw the Rockets coming up the stairway, she ran down the corridor, jumped, held onto the light fixture on the ceiling, and kicked the first Rocket in the chest. The impact flung the man backward into his partner in crime and sent them tumbling down the stairs. Neither of them saw what had struck them.

The younger of them looked up at the top of the stairway and he saw an alien _monster_ land with a cat-like grace on the first floor landing and stare down at him. It was completely made of clear blue gel and 'her' snake-like eyes were shining with an elemental rage. He fumbled his semi-automatic pistol out of its holster and fired. Then he fired again. He kept on shooting as Omega walked down the stairs, her pace unhurried and untroubled. A series of blue impacts appeared on her chest, but she didn't even blink.

With a simple motion, she pulled the weapon out of the terrified Rocket's hand and then _crushed_ it into a ball of crumpled steel. As the terrorist looked, blue gel-like fluid flowed into the impacts on her chest and, in seconds, there was no indication he had fired a single shot. Omega looked at him and said, in a cold and inhuman tone, "Did you really think you could stop _me_ with this _child's toy_?"

She shook her index finger in reproof, and a Metronome attack blew the Rocket hard against the reinforced concrete wall and into unconsciousness.

=========

Domino saw everything that happened through the miniaturised cameras that each Rocket carried in their safety glasses. On the wall of monitors before her, eight of the screens now showed only static. As she watched, there was a terrified scream over the radio and last five active cameras blinked off in quick succession. Just before the last screen blinked out, Domino saw something that _might_ have been a Golem standing over three unconscious bodies, but just before the signal was interrupted, it flowed like a liquid into a Scyther and lunged towards the camera.

Domino slammed her fist against the control panel in frustration. She now had to use her special alternative, and damn the Boss's strange warnings about vengeful mothers.

Through the radio link, she said, "Butch, Cassidy, proceed with option B immediately!"

== == == == ==

"Mom! Mom, open this door! Please!" Ash rattled the reinforced door, desperate to help his mother. He could hear the sound of the intense fight that was taking place in the living room. Pikachu was trying to help him, but without much success. The two friends were so focussed on opening the door that they didn't hear when someone opened the window.

Ash just had enough time to see a shadow over him, before someone grabbed him from behind and another lunged forward and punched him several times in the abdomen. Pikachu threw several Thunder-shocks against his friend's attackers, but as they were using a rubber uniform, its attacks didn't have effect.

One of the invaders raised a weapon and fired. A web, similar the one of a Spinarak, tangled around the electric Pokémon. Pikachu was completely immobilised.

"Pikachu!" Ash screamed.

"Shut up!" The invader that had fired the web gun at Pikachu ordered, punching Ash in the face, and leaving a thin trail of blood trickling from his mouth.

The two attackers removed their helmets.

"I _loved_ doing that!" Cassidy exclaimed with a vicious smile.

"Don't enjoy it too much," Butch snapped in reply. "Remember, he is the bait that we need." Butch got Ash by the collar of his pyjamas and lifted him from the floor. Cassidy pouted at Butch's reproof and picked up Pikachu.

==============

Delilah heard her son's scream. Running to his bedroom, she saw that it was empty and the window was broken. She ran until the window, and she saw that a couple of Black Team Rocket agents, Butch and Cassidy. They were _kidnapping_ Ash!

"ASH!" She screamed, with a terror that she never felt before (if she still had an organ that could be called a "heart", it would be pumping at a completely off-scale rate now). She jumped through the window, at the same time that the wings of a Fearow flowed out of her back.

Delilah soared through the air and landed right in front of the two field agents, her shadow falling over them. Her scream echoed through the cold night. "LET HIM GO _RIGHT NOW,_ OR I WILL..."

"What you will do, mutant?" Butch asked, holding the barrel of his Uzi sub-machinegun below Ash's chin. "Will you risk the life of your dear son?" A sadistic smile appeared on his lips. But it was a fake. The smile hid the terrible fear that he and Cassidy felt in facing this that... _monster_. He didn't get to understand how a being like that was _possible_... 

Rage and fear fought inside of Delilah Ketchum. She had do to something, but she could not place Ash in danger She could not place Ash in danger...

Meanwhile, three Rocket Dan'in fighters, the only members of the assault force who were still in a condition to fight or that had not fled, pointed an experimental freeze-ray cannon at her.

"Well, Mrs. Ketchum," Cassidy said, a little fear entering her sneering tone, "we have a deal for you. You go back to Team Rocket and we kindly leave your pitiful son alive. What do you say, hmm?"

_Go back to Team Rocket?_ Ash thought in confusion through the pain in his stomach and head.

"Mom... _Run!_" he shouted.

"Shut up!" That was when Cassidy made the biggest mistake that she could have made: she hit Ash.

A monstrous, strident sound that was not from _this_ world blasted their ears. Delilah Ketchum had _screamed_ in an inhuman anger and fear for her offspring.

What happened next only became clear after the technicians back at Team Rocket's headquarters had edited the video footage from the various cameras into some kind of order. There was a blur of motion and Delilah morphed into an Onyx and slammed herself into the ground, burrowing into the soft earth. Before anyone could even think, let alone react, she exploded out of the ground directly underneath the two Black Rockets, sending them and their prisoner sprawling on their backs.

The 'Onyx' opened its' mouth and, impossibly, used a Supersonic attack to blow the three surviving Dan'in across the street and deep into the forest. Simultaneously a forest of Vine Whips snatched Ash and dragged him away from Butch and Cassidy before using a kind of Tail Whip attack to smash the two terrorists away.

Butch and Cassidy flew up into the air. "Looks like we're blasting off too!" they cried as they vanished into the distance. A tiny sparkle of light shone from some metal fitting on their uniforms and they were gone.

The 'Onyx' transformed back into Delilah Ketchum. She hugged her son hard to her chest, feeling her love and her care for him more deeply than she ever had before. "I'm so sorry Ash," she murmured, holding the boy tightly.

Not knowing what to say and stunned by everything that happened, he said: "Thanks for the rescue... Mom."

Delilah smiled, grateful. She placed her son gently in the ground. Pikachu, who had finally freed himself from the sticky web, ran over to him and jumped into his arms. Ash found it strange that the blows that Butch and Cassidy had inflicted on him didn't hurt any more. Delilah walked into the living room and stared at the five unconscious Dan'in lying around the room. Her eyes glowed a bright green and they all vanished.

The young Pokémon Trainer's eyes bulged out when he realised that his mother had used Teleport. "Where are they?" he asked.

"In Viridian City's sewer system." She looked seriously at Ash, morphing back in to her human disguise. "That _is_ the natural habitat for Grimers, isn't it?"

Ash looked at his mother in surprise and then felt the sides of his mouth twitching upwards. Delilah desperately tried to keep her 'Omega' face on, but failed. Within seconds, mother and son were laughing uproariously at the appropriate destination and in relief at their narrow escape.

Then, they heard a moan filled with a truly painful terror from the direction of the garden gate. The source of the moan was a 16 year-old girl... Misty.

Delilah was terrified and concerned. _Of all the people in the world, why had to be __her__?_ the mutant woman thought in exasperation. By the expression on the girl's face, she had seen _everything_. Delilah her slowly and cautiously, as she would approach a terrified thoroughbred Rapidash. "Misty, I know that you are afraid, but..."

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!" Misty screamed at the _nightmare_ that her brain insisted that was Ash's mother. She began to stagger backwards, forgetting her bike, forgetting Togepi (who was wondering why 'Mommy' was reacting like this to 'Grandma'). "DON'T TOUCH ME!!!," Misty said, waving her arms to knock Delilah's hands away from her.

"Misty, let me explain..." Ash tried to calm his friend, reaching out to her. Misty's eyes focussed on Ash's hand, the hand of the _monster's son_, her closest and most trusted friend. Now it was trying to touch her maybe infect her as well with whatever alien abomination that had mutated them Misty's terrified mind broke under the strain of so many contradictory emotions. She turned and ran screaming as fast as she could.

_"Misty!"_ Ash ran after her as fast as he could, Pikachu running to join him.

As soon as the boy and his Pokémon were gone, Domino pulled herself out of the ditch where she was hiding. She did not know how she had got so close without Omega seeing her and terminating her as efficiently she had all the others, but she thanked whatever gods or demons that watched over her this night. Hidden behind a bush, she raised her TRX sniper rifle, loaded with special chemical ammunition issued to her by the Boss himself, trained the weapon on the figure standing back-lit in the doorway of the house and fired a single shot at such close range, she could not miss.

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	7. Misty

The Omega Mutation - chapter 7

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

_**Chapter 7 - Misty**_

Delilah Ketchum watched as Ash chased after the terrified Misty and tried to decide whether she should help him in his pursuit. Suddenly, she felt a hard impact in her chest. Delilah didn't feel any pain in human terms, but some instinct made her look down at her chest, fright beginning to fill her mind. She saw a glass bullet that slowly broke open, releasing a red fluid inside of her transparent blue body. Suddenly there was pain; a terrible burning pain. The mutant woman fell to her knees as the toxin began to attack the adaptive proteins that made up her modified nervous system.

"Who could foresee this?" a woman asked in a sneering tone of voice. "The powerful Omega captured _so easily_."

Delilah lifted her eyes. The poison that now circulated in her body was causing her vision to blur and was confusing her perceptions. For one moment, she thought that the black-uniformed woman in front of her was her deceased sister. But then her vision cleared up (her regenerative abilities were beginning to combat the toxin), and she realised that the woman that was standing in the doorway of her living room was another person; Another Black Rocket Agent.

The blond woman wore a smug smile and holding what Delilah recognised as a TRX rifle in her right hand. The woman reached behind her and pulled out an electrified net of the sort Team Rocket had developed to capture wild Dittos. "Don't worry, Omega," the Rocket announced. "You received a small dose of AO-X." The former Rocket Agent cringed when she recognised the acronym: it was the substance made to knock out and kill Dittos. "You won't die..." the agent continued, "although perhaps you would _prefer_ that to what is going to happen to you."

Domino threw the net... and suddenly screamed, dropping her rifle and reeling backwards. Operating on instinct, Delilah had launched a wave of telekinetic force at the young woman, sending the net flying back into Domino's face. Writhing in pain from the powerful electric charge in the net, Domino was a sitting duck and Delilah launched her over the sofa and against the back wall of the living room with one inhumanly powerful drop kick. "You should have used a lethal dose of AO-X, dear," Delilah said angrily. "I'll be _glad_ to make you _regret_ that you missed your chance!"

Domino snarled and reached for one of her Pokéballs. She felt a searing pain in her right hand and looked to see something that looked like an _egg_ biting her hand. "Togepi-pi-toge-to-ge-ge-pi!" [Leave Grandma alone!] Togepi exclaimed angrily. In her escape, Misty had forgotten her little friend. Although confused, Togepi was brave enough to want to help 'Grandma' fight the bad lady.

Surprisingly, Delilah's maternal instinct lit up when she saw the immature Psychic-type attack Domino. She didn't want the small Pokémon to get hurt. She teleported Togepi to Ash's bedroom, where, hopefully, she would be safe.

The two women watched each other warily for a moment. Suddenly, Delilah pointed her left arm at Domino and a vine whip lashed from her wrist. Domino jumped and rolled across the floor to dodge the attack, which caved in some of plasterboard making up the walls. The transparent woman realised that she was facing somebody _very well_ trained. She also found it strange that Domino wasn't in the least bit afraid of her...

Domino smiled, a satisfied and sadistic smile. She pulled a Pokéball off of her belt and threw it to the center of the room. Now, the _real_ battle would begin. "Go, Slugma!" Domino exclaimed, releasing the slug-like fire-type Pokémon.

== == == == ==

_"Misty! Stop!"_ Misty heard Ash screaming, running behind her. She heard the fear and the despair in her friend's voice, but her brain was completely deaf to that. She could only think about getting as far away as possible from that _monster_, of that woman that _deceived_ her the whole time... and of the "woman's" son...

Misty stopped (ironically, close to the Pallet-Viridian Fault), grabbed two Pokéballs and yelled: "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER ASH!"

"Misty, _please_." The boy from Pallet Town implored. In his heart, he knew that she was so afraid that she couldn't hear him. He could not blame her for feeling that way. "I... I can explain!"

The Water-Type trainer tried to control the contradictory feelings of rage, friendship and terror that flashed through her mind like lightning. Fear won out. Misty released Starmie and Dragonair. "No closer, Ash. More a step, and I..." she left the threat hanging in the air.

Of course, Ash couldn't believe what he had just heard. Was Misty _threatening_ him?! "Misty..." Ash took one step in her direction.

The girl saw her friend's outstretched arm, coming in her direction. The fear of being contaminated with _whatever_ had transformed him spoke louder than her sudden urge to fall weeping into his arms. "Starmie! Water Gun _NOW!_"

The Water-Type Pokémon executed the order immediately, sensing the urgency in Misty's voice, although he couldn't understand why his Trainer wanted him to attack her Journey's companion. Shocked, Ash didn't even think to defend himself against the attack. The pressurised water jet knocked him off his feet and sent him tumbling across the ground.

"Pika-pi!" [Ash!] Pikachu shouted, rushing over to him. Desperate to protect his Trainer, Pikachu fired a Thunder-shock attack that crackled around Starmie, sending him reeling away from Ash.

Misty was barely aware of what was happening. Reacting on blind instinct and habits from years of Pokémon training, she recalled Starmie and leapt astride Dragonair. The water/flying-type rose into the sky and flew off towards Cerulean City.

Ash watched as his friend disappeared into the night, soaking wet and completely amazed. _I can't believe that she did that!_ he thought. Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him.

"Chikori! Chikori!" [Ash! Ash!]

"Huh? Chikorita?!"

"Chikori-korita-chiko-chi-chi-rita-rita!" [Someone is trying to capture your mother!] said the small plant-type Pokémon, breathless from her haste.

_"WHAT?!"_

== == == == ==

Omega was standing astride Domino with her blue gel-like hands wrapped around the blonde woman's throat. Only the weakening effects of the AO-X toxin had stopped her from crushing the Rocket's throat. Domino was scratching at Delilah's face and squeezing her wrists (where tendons and nerves would be in a human) desperately trying to loosen the mutant woman's stranglehold around her windpipe. It was a losing battle. Already, Domino could see the light-flecked blackness of death beginning to close in around her field of vision.

Panicking, she managed to pull her last unused Pokéball off of her belt and she activate it. "Kabutops, get her!" Domino gasped.

The fossil water/fighting-type Pokémon lashed out with his sabre-like arms, slashing open the mutant woman's back. Delilah released Domino, turning her whole attention to the new threat. It only took her a few moments to mimic the electric powers of an Electabuzz and send the Kabutops down with a massive Lightning Bolt attack.

Behind her, Domino crawled across the scorched and tattered living room carpet and grabbed her rifle. She rolled onto her back and fired two more rounds into Delilah's back. Delilah screamed and collapsed to the floor, two more red stains spreading like an ultra-fast fungal infection through her liquid-based body. She was _dying_.

Domino, her purple eyes flashing with hate and fear, staggered to her feet. It only took a few seconds for her to realize that she had gone _too_ far. She didn't know what The Boss's reaction would be to her killing the prize instead of capturing her, but she bet it would _not_ be pleasant. She pulled out a black-and-white Master-type Pokéball. Her last hope was that the Pokéball's stasis field would keep Omega alive until she could get her to the Headquarters research center where she was created.

Delilah, her consciousness fading in and out and her body slowly losing its' shape, had given up any hope of further resistance or even survival. She watched without hope as Domino raised the Master-ball. Suddenly the Black Rocket paused and began to shudder as if she were having a fit. "Togi-priii-priii-gi-gi-togi!" [Leave my Grandma alone you bad lady!] a voice squeaked. Blood began to spill from Domino's nose and her ears, she began to grimace in agony and the veins stood out harshly against her temples. Her eyes suddenly rolled up into her skull and she fell to the floor, unconscious.

The cavalry had arrived. Delilah stared at this most unlikely of rescuers for a long moment. Togepi had teleported herself out of Ash's room, then little Pokémon had sneaked up on Domino and used a Psychic attack. Delilah was surprised, as she didn't know Misty had taught her little friend any attacks.

"Thank you!" she murmured. Delilah didn't know how long Domino would remain unconscious from the attack. Not wanting to take any chances, she gathered her waning strength and teleported her antagonist away, not bothering to specify a destination.

Mr. Mime, who had been tied up in the first moments of the Team Rocket assault, finally freed himself and charged into the living room. He tried to help the woman whom, for all practical purposes, was his Trainer but he was a house-worker, not a medic. He didn't even know where to _begin_.

Some minutes later, Ash came back at a dead run, with Pikachu and Chikorita at his side. He didn't even notice that the house where he had grown up was a smouldering ruin in the wake of the battle between Delilah and Domino's powerful Pokémon. All he cared about was the fact that his mother was clearly dying. Red stains were spreading through her body like a malignant virus and her body was slowly liquefying and losing its' shape.

"Mom!!!" Ash cried out in despair. He knelt down beside her and grabbed her cold hands in his own. He was desperate and his mind was whirling in terror. He _needed_ to help his mother, but he didn't know _how!_

"Ash, call Sam." Delilah murmured, her eyes unfocussed.

"Huh?!" Ash was startled by this request.

"Call Professor Oak!" She repeated, desperate. And can you blame her? "He can help me. But you will have to take that rifle to him." She pointed weakly to the weapon lying by the shredded remains of the couch.

Ash looked at for one moment to his mother's alien face, deformed by the pain. "Okay!" he said, snatching the rifle. "Pikachu, Chikorita, take care of her... please." And _ran_ in the direction of the laboratory of Professor Samuel Oak.

== == == == ==

"Ouch!" Cassidy Longstreet groaned in pain, as she walked beside her team partner, Butch Seaborg. They had fell in the forest, close to the Pallet Lake. Their landing after Delilah Ketchum had blasted them off had not been soft or gentle! Cassidy was sure she had dislocated her shoulder and Butch was limping in a way that suggested he had sprained his left knee.

_"How do Jessie and James stand this?"_ Butch wondered.

They had just arrived at the lakeshore, when a blue light appeared about 30 meters above the surface of the lake. When the light disappeared, the two agents were surprised to see the form of a human woman appear and fall in the cold lake. It was Domino.

== == == == ==

"Professor! Professor!" Ash was pounding so hard on the door of the building that it seemed that he could _knock it down_ at any moment. _What is keeping him? Did he take a sleeping pill or something?!_ Ash thought in exasperation. He didn't understand why his mother wanted him to call Professor Oak, but if she thought that he could help her...

The door opened and the confused face of Professor Samuel Oak's peeked around the opening. "Ash? It is nearly midnight, lad! What is happening?"

"Professor! Come quick! Somebody shot my mother! Now she is dying and"

Oak couldn't keep up with the hysterical boy's explanation. "Calm down Ash! What are you talking about?"

Ash began to tell his tutor about his mother's mutant abilities and the sudden unprovoked assault by the forces of Team Rocket. He also gave the researcher the rifle. Professor Oak pulled the magazine out of the rifle and slid the first bullet out of the magazine. He broke the glass bullet open with his shoe and sniffed the sweet-smelling red fluid thoughtfully. Suddenly all hint of fatigue was gone from Oak's face and he was fully alert. "Ash, go up to Tracey's bedroom and wake him up, even if you have to throw _a bucket of cold water_ on him," Oak ordered. "I have to get some things in the laboratory." He ordered.

The young Trainer was completely stunned. He has just admitted that his mother was a mutant, like in the comic books, and Professor Oak wasn't even _surprised!?_ "Ash, hurry!" Oak said firmly. "Time is a critical factor right now!" The black-haired boy ran in the direction indicated by the old man's arm.

The white-haired man closed his eyes for one moment, sighing, before entering in his laboratory.

== == == == ==

Professor Oak wasn't the only one that had a tumultuous awakening. Daisy and Lilly Williams also had been roused from their beds. Now they were at the door of their younger sister's bedroom. Misty had appeared at dawn with the most panicked expression than they had ever seen in their lives. Misty had broken Lilly's nose by slamming the door open when she entered. She had only stopped running when she reached her bedroom.

"Misty! Like, please, open the door!" Lilly implored.

Daisy, knowing her sister all too well, put a gentle hand on Lilly's shoulder. "Like, forget it Lilly. Misty only will come out when she calms down." Lilly reluctantly agreed.

Two hours later, Lilly was at the Gym's Reception desk when the internal telephone rang.

"Lilly? It it's Misty. Listen... if... if someone asks for me, I'm not... I'm not here. Do you understand?"

"What's happening Misty?" Lilly asked. "Are you in trouble or something?"

"You you don't want to know," Misty said, her voice broken by sobs. "Please, Lilly, do as as I say. I I'm not here, especially if Ash Ketchum calls."

"Like, what did he do to you?" Misty had already hung up. Lilly briefly considered trying to call her back, but she knew how stubborn Misty could be. She wouldn't talk to her, or to anyone, until she was good and ready. So all Lilly could do was wonder about what might have happened and plot increasingly bloody acts of vengeance for when she next met Ash...

Meanwhile, Misty put down the receiver and, in a remarkably childish act, she sat down in the walk-in wardrobe, closed the door and hugged her knees to her chest in the darkness. Instinct was forcing on her a desperate attempt to make herself as invisible and hidden as possible.

Misty's mind was in a whirl powerful like a Gyarados' Dragon's Rage attack. She hadn't thought coherently or consecutively since she saw that massive Onyx that protected Ash from Team Rocket metamorphose into an alien vision in the form of Delilah Ketchum. If that _wasn't_ bad enough, the easy way Ash acted around her, and the love demonstrated in how she hugged Ash to her, indicated that this was no surprise to her friend.

_Friend!_ Misty thought hopelessly. _He he must be a monster just like her!_ When she saw the Delilah-monster teleport the unconscious Team Rocket agents away, she started to run. All her instincts were screaming at her that the creature would destroy her. Although she _knew_ in her head that it was still the Delilah and Ash she had known for four years now, she couldn't stop running. All she could feel was an all-consuming terror. She _had_ to run or she would face a fate worse than death!

But _what_ fate? Misty's overactive imagination, which Violet's taste in science fiction and horror movies from the last century had worsened considerably, began to go into overdrive. It was hard to imagine what they could _not_ be interested in doing. Maybe use her in some kind of experiment. She was, after all, a healthy and fertile human female. Perhaps they wanted to use her to... to breed another generation of mutant monstrosities like them!

Or, more horribly, maybe they _weren't_ really Ash and Delilah any more. She remembered one classic film, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." In that particular story, humans were replaced in their sleep by horrible alien doppelgangers grown in plant-like pods outside their bedrooms. One thing was certain, and that was Misty wasn't planning on sleeping any time _soon!_

No, she remembered how Pikachu was still with Ash and Togepi wasn't afraid either. Misty covered her mouth to hold in a scream. _Togepi! How could I have left her behind?_ Misty fell onto her side and buried her face in her hands and wept in terror as she tried to imagine what might be happening to the cute little psychic-type at the _monsters_' hands

No No, they must still be the _bodies_ of Ash and Delilah Pikachu wouldn't still be there if they were some kind of alien duplicates. Then what had happened? Perhaps perhaps the monsters were something inside of them something like a virus or a parasite that restructured their bodies into metamorphosing alien liquid

Misty shuddered, suddenly realising that maybe they wouldn't have to try to find her. Maybe, eventually, she would go to them. After all she might already be _infected_

She remembered when Ash won the Johto League the previous year.

He had defeated Gary, who was using an Arcanine, with his Chikorita. All throughout that odds-defying battle, Misty had been filled with incredibly passionate feelings for Ash. She felt his worries, his joys and his triumphs. When the battle ended, with Ash's victory, she had felt ready to explode with joy. She ran across the stadium, jumped into his arms and kissed him, freely admitting to herself for the first time that she felt for the kid who wrote off her bicycle three long years previously.

Surprised at first, Ash soon began to respond to the kiss, holding her head and stroking her hair. When it became clear that they were lost in that kiss, Gary asked Pikachu to "save them from embarrassment." It was, after all, being broadcast to entire world! And Pikachu _had_ saved them, with a Thunder-shock.

No one was surprised that, when Ash gone to the Masters' Box to receive the Johto League Trophy, he was holding Misty's hand. Nor was anyone surprised that the two danced together the whole night during the Champion's Ball that celebrated Ash's victory.

Misty could still feel that kiss and the incredible feeling of warmth that it had given her. Neither she nor Ash had spoken of that moment since. Both more than a little embarrassed about the strength of their emotions at such a young age. Misty hugged her legs harder and wept in terror and heartbreak. She had never felt so safe and so alive before that moment. Nor had she ever felt that she _belonged_ so clearly before. However, perhaps that was all it took. A single kiss to snuff out her humanity like it was a candle in a typhoon. Could that kiss have infected her? Might there be some alien horror, microscopic or otherwise, crawling about in her now, slowly reworking her into a... a _monster_?

Terrified about what might happen, she opened the sliding wardrobe door slightly so she could see and concentrated on her right hand. Misty had never been more frightened, but she _had_ to know whether she was still well, her. She concentrated and _willed_ her hand to liquefy and flow into blue gel-like fluid. Nothing happened.

Misty tried to draw in a deep breath in relief, but it all she could do was suck in a series of shuddering sobs. She dragged the wardrobe closed and tried to think.

_I need help,_ she thought desperately. _I need to get someone who can tell the world and protect me! I can't stay here too long Ash and Delilah know that this is the first place to look. Maybe I should go to Pewter City and hide at Brock's Gym No_ Misty immediately shied away from that possibility. Black paranoia uncoiled in her mind. _Brock is Ash's closest friend,_ she reminded herself. _And he stayed with Delilah for some time after coming back from the Orange Islands..._ Misty thought desperately. _He's probably already one of them._ Tracey was off the list too. He was always Ash's friend, rather than hers. Ash had probably infected him years ago, and with him, Professor Oak went off the list of potential allies. _Pallet Town probably should change its name to Alien Town, it is monster central now,_ she thought, trying to stop herself from starting to scream in terror. _What should I do? What __can__ I do? Please, someone, tell me what to do!_

Never having felt so lost, so very, very alone, Misty hugged herself tightly and continued to weep until her exhausted body surrendered. Her brain shut down and she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

== == == ==

Ash Ketchum's brown eyes were empty of feeling. He had never felt so tired and so lost in all his young lifetime. He was looking at his mother, who had curled up into a fetal position as she floated in a tube of cool grey fluid, attached to a battery of sensors and other electronic apparatus by wires that seemed to be attached to every square centimetre of her blue flesh. Professor Oak had built this apparatus some years before, just in case this day would come.

"You knew already, didn't you?" Ash asked, in a tired voice, to the man that had quietly entered the Laboratory.

"Yes, Ash. I knew about your mother's mutation," Oak confirmed with a gentle sigh.

Ash faced the Pokémon researcher. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I thought that I had no right to do that," he replied. Sam Oak felt badly for having hidden that of Ash. "I mean... Delilah is _your_ mother. And if I told you that she was..." Sam didn't want say 'a mutant,' "different, _very_ different, from the rest of us, would you have believed me?"

Ash sighed, and scratched Pikachu on the head. The Pokémon cooed reassuringly and rubbed his hands. "No, I wouldn't have," Ash said. "You're right about that." Then, Ash laughed ironically. "Then, you were helping her deal with her condition, weren't you? That explains why you two always walked together. And there I was thinking you were dating and that I might end up as Gary's step-uncle!"

The researcher blushed. Both were silent for a while. Sam Oak noticed the perspiration that was beading on Ash's forehead, in spite of the laboratory being air-conditioned and cool for the sake of Delilah's health.

"And how is Tracey doing?" Ash asked after a moment.

"Well, he is calmer now," Sam replied. Sam remembered Tracey's terrified reaction when he saw Delilah for the first time in her default form. Of course, he initially assumed that she was some incredible new kind of Pokémon that Ash had captured. His fear became utter _terror_ when the Pokémon Watcher_ recognised_ the being in the regeneration apparatus. "I explained Delilah's situation to him. He's promised that he won't tell anyone anything."

Ash nodded. "Professor Oak," Ash asked, "will my mother recover?"

"I believe so yes," Oak replied in his most reassuring tone of voice. "We arrived well in time, before the toxin destroyed her basic cellular integrity. However, she will need total rest and will be unable to morph into any other shape or use any of her other powers for some time to come."

Ash sighed and looked down, covering his eyes with his hands. Oak watched compassionately as tears trickled down the boy's cheeks for a few minutes and his breathing turned into hoarse sobs. "Thank you," Ash finally managed to say in a grating, hoarse tone of voice. After a few moments, he was able to look up and looked at the digital timepiece over the glass tube that was keeping his mother alive. It was 4:12 A.M. and, in two hours, a new day would dawn.

The Champion of the Global League of 2063 realised that something important had happened during the night, something that he had not noticed, and something that he _should_ have noticed. He sighed. Well, he would have to worry with that later, because now he had an important matter to deal with. "Professor Oak, could you take care of the Security Police for me?" Ash knew that after all the destruction caused by Rockets, the Security Police would ask questions.

"Sure, but why?"

"Because I have to go to Cerulean City and, God help me, convince Misty to not to tell anybody about my mother."

"Does she know? How?" Ash explained what had happened in the previous night. Professor Oak grimaced and shook his head. "Good luck, Ash!"

"I will _need_ that," Ash murmured for himself. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Carrying Pikachu and Togepi, he left, heading for Cerulean City...

== == == == ==

It was 11 A.M. in Cerulean City and Ash climbed off of Pidgeot's back. He stroked the big flying-type gratefully and thanked him for the ride before recalling him to his Pokéball. After nearly falling off his bicycle for the twentieth (or was it the thirtieth?) time, Ash had given up trying to reach Cerulean on his own power and had asked Pidgeot for his help. Ash's face was flushed, he kept on having shivering fits and he was also having dizzy spells. It was if something were _using_ up all his body's energy for its' own purposes. _The last thing I need right now,_ he thought in exasperation,_ is to be coming down with influenza or something!_

Ash shook his head. He could handle something trivial like a cold or the flu later. Right now, he had to convince Misty not to tell anyone about his mother's mutation. He desperately tried to think of something to say. It still hadn't occurred to him that Misty might be frightened of him because she thought _he_ was a mutant too

"Toge-priii-priii-Togepi-toge?" [Are you well, Daddy?] the small Pokémon asked.

Ash looked at Togepi in surprise (partly, due to the fact she was always calling him 'Daddy.')

"Yes. But why you ask?"

"To-to-pi-gepi-Toge-geprii." [Because you are all red.]

"I'm red because it is too damn hot today," Ash snapped. He was unaware that it was a cooler-than-usual autumn day in Cerulean City.

Beside them, Pikachu looked at his Trainer in worry. All electric-type Pokémon could see the bio-electric field generated by all life forms. Pikachu was watching something unlike _anything_ he had ever seen before. Ash's bio-electric field was _changing_. It had begun in a subtle way shortly after Ash's thirteenth birthday and had suddenly accelerated and gained in strength in the last few days. Normally the bio-electric field was like a uniform aurora hugging the skin and extending out about two centimetres like a kind of St. Elmo's Fire. Ash's bio-electric field now more closely resembled the sun's corona during a Solar Activity Maximum. Massive knotted streamers and arcs of bio-electric energy were surging across Ash's body and flashing up to four or five _metres_ from his body. Pikachu felt that he should say something, but he wasn't sure exactly _what _he was supposed to say.

Ash sucked in a deep breath, gathered his courage in both hands and knocked on the door of the Gym Leader's residence next to the Cascade Gym. The door slammed open and Lilly Williams leapt out, grabbing him by the shoulders with a fierce expression. "_What did you done to my sister, Ash Ketchum?_" Lilly screamed into his face. Ash knew fury when he saw it and readied himself for the violence to start.

"Well... I..." he said hopelessly.

"Lilly, calm down!" Daisy ordered, seizing her sister by the back of her dress and dragging her away from Ash. Daisy looked into the eyes of the boy with half of her age in a searching way. "Hello, Ash," she said calmly. "What can we do for you?"

"Well... I... uh Misty left Togepi at my house last night. I came to bring her back. I also wanted to talk with her..."

The oldest of the Sensational Sisters interrupted him. "Thank you for returning my sister's Pokémon..." she said. Lilly had already grabbed Togepi out of Ash's hands and had practically _ran_ into the Gym's interior. "I'm afraid that you cannot speak to Misty, though. She left for Violet City three hours ago."

Daisy had changed a lot in the last few years. She had become a better Trainer and had learnt a little decorum. After all, a Gym Leader should be the perfect host to his or her visitors. However, she forgot all of that now as she considered Misty's horrible emotional state. "Like, what in the hell did you did to get her so upset, Ash?" she bit out. "Are you cheating on her with Melody, your friend on Shamuti Island? Or did you try to push her into going all the way last night?"

"_What?_ But I..."

"Save your lies for some other time," Daisy spat. "Goodbye, Ash Ketchum. Like, don't come this way again unless you have some official business." Daisy then closed the door in the face of the Trainer from Pallet Town. Daisy watched through a window as Ash stood at the door for some time before he sagged in on himself unhappily and walked off. As soon as she was sure he was gone, she breathed out gently and put Gyarados' Pokéball back onto her belt.

She walked into Misty's bedroom to find her baby sister hugging Togepi like a drowning person would hug a life preserver. Tears were streaming down Misty's cheeks and Lilly was hugging her, crying too as she tried to comfort her. "Is is he gone?" Misty sobbed.

"Yes." Daisy said kindly. The Gym Leader shuddered as she heard the utter relief, bordering on hysterical joy in Misty's sigh when she heard that.

== == == == ==

The boy from Pallet Town was pacing up and down in front of Pikachu, Charizard, Pidgeot, Chikorita, Totodile and Kingler in Cousteau Park, just across the street from the Gym. Ash wasn't sure why he had let them out of their Pokéballs. As he felt _wrong_ somehow, as if his skin didn't fit his body anymore and he desperately needed someone to talk to. "I can't believe that Daisy thinks I would _cheat_ on Misty," he blurted to his six friends. Ash didn't mention Daisy's other accusation. Even the _thought _of trying to force himself on Misty was anathema to him.

Ash covered his face for a moment and tried to think. "I've still got to get into the Gym and talk to Misty," he said. Ash had no doubt that his friend was inside. He had smelt her distinctive perfume. It had been a gradual change, one that he hadn't noticed, but he had got very good at picking up scents, hearing faint sounds and seeing movement in the dark recently.

Ash sighed and sagged to his knees. Chikorita walked over and rubbed his face supportively. Pikachu leapt to his shoulder and then Kingler and Totodile tried to hug his legs while Pidgeot and Charizard spread their wings over him like a protective shield. Ash smiled and accepted his friends' implicit confidence and support. _If only I didn't feel so tired,_ he thought.

== == == == ==

The afternoon was just turning into evening when Daisy and Lilly left the Cascade Gym to attend a disciplinary hearing against a Trainer accused of Pokémon Abuse being held at the Cerulean City Pokémon Center. They were locking the doors as Misty was left behind alone.

Before they left, they gave a last glance at the Gym. "Like, do you think is a good idea?"

"Come on, Lilly," Daisy said with, rolling her eyes. "We will only be gone for half an hour at most. Like, what could happen?"

Above them, a Pidgeot alighted on the roof of the Gym. The shadow of a boy jumped off, followed by a Pikachu. Pikachu fired off a small electric shock, shorting out the alarms around the window. Ash released Kingler and the crab-like water-type began to tear at the glazier's putty around the windowpane. In less than a minute, Ash was able to prize the glass out of the frame and make a stealthy entrance to the Gym.

== == == == ==

Misty walked through the darkened building, responding to a malfunction warning on the main alarm control panel. Suddenly, noticed someone hidden in the shadows, close to window. Feeling a tremendous terror, she screamed a challenge at the shadow. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Calm down, Misty! It's me!"

Misty was instantly paralysed. She had recognised the pleading voice. "A Ash?"

Ash left the shadows. His face was flushed; the collar of his blue jacket was open. His eyes were shadowed with fatigue and he was trembling slightly as if he had a fever. Seeing this, Misty came to a conclusion that was both supremely correct and completely wrong. _He is changing. He is becoming a monster, just like his mother!_ was Misty's terrified thought.

"Misty, I only wanted..."

She didn't let him to finish. Screaming, she ran down the empty corridor in direction of the Gym's fighting arena.

Ash stood alone for a moment, looking at Pikachu's sarcastic smile. "Great idea, Ash," he said to himself in reprimand.

When Ash arrived at the Arena, he flipped a switch to turn on some of the lights. When Ash looked up, he almost fainted in utter terror. Misty was standing on one of the beams supporting the roof, trying to reach one of the skylights. "Misty! What are you DOING UP THERE?!?" he shouted.

Misty either didn't hear or didn't want to respond. Ash ran for the service ladder leading to the roof area. When he emerged from the inspection trap just a few metres from Misty, she screamed in terror. "Don't come near me, you... _you alien!_" Misty began to run down the narrow beam. She tripped on one of the brackets attaching the beam to the roof and tumbled out into the air, 50 feet above a cold, unyielding concrete floor.

_"PI-CHU!" [MISTY!]_

_"MISTY! NOOO!"_ Ash's scream echoed through the empty gym, as Misty fell, her arms and legs pin-wheeling helplessly against the air. Then she struck the floor, and the sound of her bones breaking was the _most terrible_ sound than Ash heard in the life. Ash was unaware of anything as he slid down the ladder and ran over to his friend's broken body (his girlfriend's body his innermost self could admit that now). Pikachu, crying in terror, was already beside her.

_"Misty... no please, God..."_ Ash gasped, tears streaming down his cheeks. Misty's back, neck and all four of her limbs were broken, the broken ends of her bones poking through tears in her flesh and she was bleeding freely from every orifice. Her eyes were glazed and, as Ash tried to feel the pulse in her neck, he could somehow _feel_ the life draining out of her limp body. Misty was murmuring something, but Ash was in no fit state to hear, even if what she was saying were coherent words, which was unlikely. "Misty _what have I done?_" Ash cried out. "Please please don't die! _Misty, please stay_"

Misty gasped one last time and then her chest stopped moving. Her eyes were utterly blank and lifeless now, her pupils fully dilated. Ash screamed in horror and denial. "NOOO! MISTYYYY! COME BACK! PLEASE!" Half insane with grief and drawn by some instinct he didn't understand, Ash grabbed Misty's shoulders and pressed his forehead to her clammy cheek, desperately trying to _will_ the life back into her body. Then something happened; something impossible; something... _wonderful_.

A gentle electric blue glow appeared around Ash's body and spread over Misty's still form. Ash stiffened and gasped in pain. His skin began to writhe, his arteries and veins standing out stiffly. Blood began to flow from Ash's nose and mouth. There was a deep electric hum and the lights in the Arena seemed to grow brighter. As Pikachu watched, too afraid to even move, he saw his Trainer's limbs fracture, bone snapping and punching out through his flesh, as Misty's bones healed and her wounds closed up. Misty's neck and back suddenly slid back into place as Ash's neck suddenly dropped limply to one side at an unnatural angle. Somehow, Ash's body was _absorbing_ Misty's injuries.

Three of the lights exploded with a loud bang. Misty gasped in a breath and her eyes were once again filled with life and awareness. The blue glow faded and Ash's body slumped to one side of Misty, barely breathing with blood pouring from every orifice. He was on the verge of death. Misty looked around her in confusion and saw him. She screamed, covering her mouth in horror. "_Ash!_ NO! _Please don't don't die! How how could this happen?_"

As the girl and the Pokémon looked on, Ash's back and neck straightened. His wounds were slowly closing up and his bones were re-setting themselves. His breathing grew stronger and the light of life and awareness in his eyes became brighter

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	8. The Omega Factor

The Omega Mutationby Joshua Falken

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

_**Chapter 8 - The Omega Factor**_

_Delilah and Ash were walking through the Main Street of Pallet Town, coming back from a Pokémon show that they had seen. They laughed, when suddenly a group of bright spotlights blinded them. A series of fire, ice and electric attacks struck Delilah. She tried to use a Recover, while she searched desperately for her son in the blinding sea of light._

_"Mom!" she heard Ash scream. He was being dragged onto a helicopter by two men. Before she could do anything, the combined attacks of several electric- and ice-type Pokémon left her completely stunned. To get rid of her attackers, she morphed into a Clustanode and used an Explosion attack. But before she could put herself back together to pursue the helicopter, it __disappeared__ in mid-air. It had been teleported._

_She tried, but she was unable to sense where her son had been taken. Then despair took over Delilah Ketchum. She cried._

_She had lost Ash..._

_In Delilah's mind, everything blurred as if time were a tape being fast forward..._

_Five years after, Team Rocket had a champion of the darkness, a being that was an irresistible force, and perhaps even __indestructible__ one._

_On the TV, she saw Vermilion City in flames, destroyed by a figure in a uniform that all-too-familiar to her: A blue uniform with a rich scarlet Greek letter omega on the chest of the tunic. Whoever it was who had clamed her old mantle, he or she could destroy all the forces at Vermilion City's UN Defence Forces Base in just a few minutes._

_A figure that didn't have a face, just a featureless silver mask..._

_Fast forward..._

_Delilah walked through the ruins of Pallet Town as if she was in a nightmare. The place that she had chosen as a home, the place where had everything that she loved or that she had loved was had been destroyed._

_She ran all the way to Samuel Oak's laboratory, with a thread of hope and despair in her heart._

_"Sam! Sam!" she called._

_"Here..." a voice murmured from under the bushes. Delilah began to clear the bushes from over her only friend. Samuel Oak had lost a lot of blood: Someone had seemingly driven an iron lance through his chest._

_"Sam, don't move," Delilah said quietly. "I will go for help!"_

_"There is... no time..." he murmured. "Delilah... They say that you need set a thief to catch a thief... or a polymorph to kill a polymorph..." Then, the light of life disappeared from Samuel Oak's eyes._

_Gently and lovingly, Delilah closed her friend's eyes. She lifted her head. A table of polished metal had fallen nearby, reflecting the image of the redheaded woman as if it were a mirror._

_"They say that you need set a thief to catch a thief... or a polymorph to kill a polymorph..." Those words repeated endlessly in her mind. Sam was right, she decided. She had a responsibility that she could not escape. Almost without any conscious thought on her part, she saw her clothes morph into a form she had not used for decades: a blue uniform with the emblem of the Greek letter Omega on her chest..._

_Fast forward... _

_In downtown Viridian, there was the building of Kanto Region Governing Council, the place where the representatives of the United Nations Organization gathered to decide the destiny of Indigo, Orange and Johto. But now, the building was the new headquarters of Team Rocket, the new absolute rulers of the Kanto Region._

_Quietly, a flying being approached the building, carrying a spray paint can. The flying woman wrote in big letters on the side of the building: __'I will be waiting for you in the Steelheart Steelworks Plant, in Vermilion City. Omega.'_

_Fast forward..._

_Delilah was padding quietly along a gantry in some kind of factory. Occasionally, clouds of steam or some noxious chemical would cloud her vision. A human would probably be dead from the toxic gasses hanging around by now, but she was not human anymore, at least not entirely._

_However, she was more human than the figure that stepped out of a cloud of steam directly in front of her. It was him: The dark one who was holding the entire continent in terror, the one they said was unkillable. Delilah looked at the tall, masked figure. She noted the blue uniform, the anonymous curving mirrored silver mask of a face and the royal scarlet Greek letter Omega on his chest. "Greetings Omega," the figure said in a dark, evil tone of voice. "You don't know how long I have waited for this day."_

_"Omega is dead," Delilah snapped in reply. "You will be too, soon enough."_

_The one known as Omega-Two balled his right hand into a fist and suddenly waved his left hand at her as if he were throwing something. Delilah's enhanced senses detected the glowing energy of a psychic attack flashing across the space between her and her adversary. Delilah dived under the attack, morphing into an Umbreon as she did so. In her new form she ran across the space separating her from her opponent and lunged forward, intending to rip his throat out with her powerful jaws._

_There was a massive golden-white flash and Delilah found herself lying on the ground. Her opponent had used a Thunder-shock attack. A combination of proximity and the vulnerability of dark-types to electric attacks had increased its effect. Delilah softened her body and rose up in her default shape. "It is time to end this distraction," her opponent said dismissively. He raised his arms and his forearms turned into tangled masses of vine whips which lashed out towards her._

_Reacting instinctively, Delilah 'morphed her arms into the bladed arms of a Scyther and whirled them before her like chitinous fan blades. She severed every one of the vine whips, which made her opponent bellow in pain. The severed vines 'morphed into rivulets of blue gel-like fluid and flowed back to Omega-Two. His body re-absorbed them on contact._

_Delilah wasn't watching this, however. She was pressing her advantage. She opened her mouth and delivered a Supersonic attack that blew her opponent off his feet. She lunged forward, intending to finish this..._

_Fast forward..._

_In another part of the factory, Delilah and her opponent were sparring, using their morphing powers and unarmed combat abilities to the full. "You are good, Omega," the dark one sneered. "But you are an obsolete model compared to me. Surrender and make it easy on yourself."_

_"Oh please," Delilah responded dismissively. She was wielding a metal bar she had pulled from a safety railing like it was a Bo staff. She lashed out and sliced deep into her opponent from right shoulder to chest. Her opponent's body morphed closed around the bar and he kicked Delilah in the face, knocking her back. He then pulled the bar out of his body sideways and lunged towards her._

_Delilah kicked her opponent in the face with both feet as he came close. She somersaulted onto her feet and, before he could react, leapt over his head and landed behind him. The new Omega turned to face his predecessor just in time to receive a roundhouse kick to the face..._

_Fast forward..._

_Omega-Two knocked the Delilah's hands from his throat and lashed out at her, electrically charging his hands to massively increase the power of his punches. Delilah reeled back, stunned for a second. Her opponent grabbed her by the arm and slammed her into an electrical switching box. He then seized a handful of her hair and smashed her face into the box again, then again, then a fourth time._

_Delilah tired of this, so she morphed herself around, reversing her position by morphing her front through her back. This sudden and unprecedented move shocked her opponent. Delilah knocked his hands off her and stepped forward. Omega-Two snarled and lashed out with a fist suddenly morphed into a spike-covered steel mace. Delilah was ready for this. She softened her head and let the punch smash right through her liquid-based structure. She extruded a new head to one side and turned the old one into a pair of hands and arms._

_Delilah's opponent reacted in surprise at his arm suddenly being in her firm grip. Delilah twisted his arm behind his back and, before he could respond, hauled him over her head and over the safety railing to the factory floor._

_Without a moment's hesitation, Delilah flung herself over the railing after her opponent..._

_Fast forward..._

_As her opponent tore through the walls, Delilah snared him with her vine whips and threw him across the tight space against a hard steel wall opposite her. Omega-Two responded to this attack by calling on the powers of a Magmar. He made his body burst into flame. Delilah had already withdrawn her vine whips and was ready for this counter-move. Experience was proving more than a match for this newcomer's greater raw power. She used a Hydro-Pump attack to drench her opponent, putting out his flames. Then she unleashed a Thunder Wave attack. Boosted by the water covering his body, the attack tore through Omega-Two's body and made him scream in agony._

_Delilah watched pitilessly as her opponent tumbled onto his face. She stepped to one side and watched him drag himself away, trying to find somewhere to hide and regenerate. She would not give him the opportunity. With an idle touch of a toe, she flipped him onto his back._

_Transforming her right forearm into a spike, she drove it into his chest. Then she began to attack, using first electricity, then ice, then earth energy and then fire. She kept switching the type of attack randomly, not giving her opponent's body time to adapt and respond._

_Omega-Two began to scream and thrash wildly, but Delilah continued to attack pitilessly until her opponent's struggles began to weaken and finally ceased. Delilah withdrew her spike and, feeling utterly drained by her exertions, she stepped back from her vanquished foe._

_As she watched, Omega-Two began to morph back into his fluidic blue 'default' form, which quickly dried out and crumbled into brown-grey dust. In the last moment, the reflective silver masked face of the monster flowed into human features. A friendly, kind face with a button nose like Delilah's and untidy hair. A face Delilah knew as intimately as her own face._

_Ash._

_Delilah felt like something deep inside her simply snapped. She fell on her knees and screamed like a condemned soul._

_**"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"**_

== == == == ==

Tracey Sketchitt didn't need to look at the EKG display to know that Delilah Ketchum was having a nightmare. It was enough to see the way that she thrashed inside of the special regeneration chamber. She seemed to be murmuring something, that Tracey bet was Ash's name.

Tracey has just called Professor Oak when Delilah woke up with a despairing scream that froze the Pokémon Watcher's blood in his veins. In a single motion, she smashed out of the glass tube and launched herself towards him. Before Tracey could even think, let alone react, his best friend's mother attacked him, smashing him backwards over a table and several metres across the laboratory's floor with a single backhanded blow. Her glowing green reptilian eyes wild and unseeing, Delilah began to pull all the medical sensors from her body. At that moment, Samuel Oak strode into the laboratory.

Powered by fear and adrenaline, and with her understanding of reality confused with the memories of her hallucination (or would be _premonition?_), Delilah turned on the researcher and closed her left hand around his throat in a vice-like grip.

"WHERE IS ASH!?!" she screamed, her eyes filled by an insane, murderous light. The researcher tried to say something, _anything_, but he couldn't get the words past Delilah's hand. He knew that, even without use of her powers, Delilah was strong enough to kill him with her bare hands. "ANSWER ME!" Delilah screamed and lifted Oak off of the ground with one hand, tightening her stranglehold even further.

The cavalry arrived in the form of a jet of cold gas. Tracey was using a fire extinguisher to blow a jet of a very special gas into Delilah's face. The expression on Delilah's face began to soften. She released Professor Oak and dropped in the ground, almost unconscious. No matter how much he understood her reaction, Professor Oak was more than happy that the mutant woman had asked him to develop that knock-out gas, _only for_ _precaution_...

Tracey, whose face was bruised by Omega's display of strength, found it hard to believe that the being that now slept peacefully on the floor of the laboratory was the same one that had attacked him.

"Professor..." he began.

"Later, Tracey," Professor Oak said, leaning over to lift Delilah by her arms. "Help me get her out of here and up to a bed."

== == == == ==

Meanwhile, in Cerulean City's Cascade Gym, Ash Ketchum, who was more exhausted than he had ever known before, was trying to recover consciousness. As he hovered in the netherworld between unconsciousness and wakefulness, he heard three familiar voices talking:

"But, Misty... Like, I only want to _understand!_ Before we left, you were completely terrified of Ash, and when we returned we found you both in the Arena, with clothes _drenched_ with blood but not a scratch on you...!"

"Daisy, please, trust me,_ all right?!_"

"Uh like, does this you mean that you are Ash's friend again?"

"No, Lilly. I mean that I am not afraid of him. And now, leave! He is waking up."

"Misty, like, we won't leave you alone with..."

_"GO!"_

_That_ woke up Ash at once. Misty has just closed her bedroom door. A Misty without a broken bone or even a single scratch. That sight was all the motivation the young trainer from Pallet Town needed. He leapt from Misty's bed (where she had lain him to rest) and embraced her hard, enfolding her in his arms.

Misty was so amazed that she didn't respond at first, but moments later she hugged him back. Somehow, she could "feel" the relief in him when he saw that she was okay. If he wanted to hurt her, he would not have saved her... _but how did he do that?!_

"Misty! Oh thank God!" he exclaimed, his voice filled with excitement. "I'm... I'm so glad that you're okay!"

"Me too," Misty replied with a slightly silly grin.

The two of them were silent for a while. Then Ash looked at in her eyes. "Misty," he began, "I I understand that you don't want to see me anymore..."

"But, Ash...!" Misty said, looking shocked.

"Please, let me finish!" Ash took a deep breath before continuing. "I only ask that you listen what I have to say. Then you don't need to see me ever again, if you prefer it that way. For now I just ask that you listen to me now, please!"

Somehow, Misty _felt_ that Ash was telling her the truth. She felt his despair, his fear about what she might say.

"Okay, Ash. I am listening," she said kindly.

With a sigh of relief, Ash began to explain his mother's situation to Misty.

== == == == ==

While Misty and Ash talked with each other, Daisy and Lilly Williams were at the Gym Security System panel. They tried access the video recordings.

"I found it!" Lilly exclaimed and they began to watch the video.

_"MISTY! NOOOO!"_ They saw Ash scream at the moment that he saw Misty fall, seemingly to her death. The horror that the sisters felt at seeing their sister's horrible injuries transformed into total astonishment when they saw the electric blue glow appear around the two young trainers.

What that they didn't know was that in the at the same moment that the file was played, somebody outside of the gym began to copy the same file's content...

== == == == ==

Misty had heard the whole story. She was completely astonished, but she _knew_ that Ash was telling the truth. She felt that. Because of that, there was only one answer she could give to his request. "All right, Ash. I won't tell to anyone about your mother."

"Thank you, Misty."

Misty blushed from embarrassment. She felt so very _silly_ now. "Ash, I'm sorry for... you know."

"That's okay, Misty. I can't blame you for using your head." He gave her an ironic and embarrassed smile, which made Misty blush even more.

"Ash, there's something I need to know," Misty said. "When I... When I fell, you _cured_ me. _You brought me back! How did you do that?"_

The 13 year-old boy swallowed dryly. _That_ was a little detail he would like to know himself. "Misty, as soon as I know that myself, I will tell you."

Some minutes later Ash left the Cascade Gym, not before seeing Daisy and Lilly's astonished gaze. The two sisters looked at him as if he was a being from another planet. They seemed half-prepared to see him suddenly glow with an unearthly light or simply levitate off the ground like Superman or something... Sighing, he turned away from the Gym and started on his way to Pallet Town.

He didn't notice that somebody was following him at a discreet distance.

== == == == ==

_"When I fell, you cured me. You brought me back! How did you do that?"_

Misty's question repeated itself constantly inside of the young trainer's head. He was desperately trying to think of an answer.

Ash had asked Pidgeot to land beside a river, in the forest between Viridian City and Pewter City and close to the Viridian Highway. He had already contacted Professor Oak, told him that he had solved the situation with Misty and that he was coming back home. However, he had not mentioned about his "healing power". He was just not prepared to discuss _that_ just yet.

Ash felt like the answer to everything that was happening to him was within his reach, but he couldn't see it clearly. Tired, Ash looked up and he saw that Pikachu and Chikorita were very close to the river. "Pikachu! Chikorita! Get away from there! Come back here..." Then, Ash fell silent as the last piece of the jigsaw neatly slotted itself into its place...

"My God! It _can't be true!_ But... it is_ the only way!_" Ash would have continued to stand there, staring in shock if it wasn't that he suddenly smelt a man somewhere near him and could hear the gentle in-and-out sighs of the person's breathing. Ash jumped to his feet, realising that the world had coloured itself with smells, sounds and the vibration of motions. Although Ash's conscious mind was paralysed by self-discovery and these amazing new sensations, his subconscious and instincts were operating normally. The electric and the plant-type Pokémon were already beside their Trainer, having realised something was wrong. Ash fastened his eyes in a point in the middle of the forest. Whatever it was, was behind those bushes

Ash grabbed one of the Pokéballs on his belt and called: "Totodile, I choose you!" The small and cheerful Water-type Pokémon materialised beside his Trainer. "Totodile, fire a Water Gun attack in that direction!" Ash pointed at the hidden man.

Executing the order, the Pokémon attacked and the water jet struck the person in the bushes. The man was bowled over by the impact. He staggered to his feet and began to run in the opposite direction to Ash and his friends. Before Ash and his Pokémon could reach it, the person that fled summoned an Abra and teleported away from the scene.

Ash stood there for a long moment. Then he recalled Totodile and Chikorita, gathered his things as fast as he could, leapt onto Pidgeot's and, with Pikachu hanging onto his jacket, urged his flying type to take him home as quickly as he could.

_Perhaps it just was a thief,_ Ash thought hopefully. Ash was sure of one thing, however: his mother owed him _a very good explanation!_

== == == == ==

Meanwhile, Jessie Gibson was looking at Mondo in complete amazement. Meowth and James Morgan were looking at their assistant in the same way.

"What did you _say?!?!_" Jessie screamed at the top of her voice.

Mondo was thankful that they were in the most distant part of the Base's underground vehicle bays. Because if not, half of Kanto would have heard the red-haired agent's shout.

"I said that somebody telephoned me and said that they knew what had happened to your mother, Jessie!"

Jessie seized the young brown-haired man by the shoulders. "What did they say?!" she demanded, shaking him hard. "Come on, talk!"

"Calm down, Jessie!" James interrupted on Mondo's behalf.

"Well, I couldn't recognise the voice, Miss Jessie," Mondo said quickly. "It was some kind of digitally sampled voice. I don't even know if the person was a man or a woman. But the message was this: 'If you want your friend Gibson to know what had happened to her mother, Miyamoto, then she should look for the connection between a Team Rocket agent named Darkholme and a special project called "Omega." That is, if she isn't afraid to have the same end that her mother did!' Then the guy hung up."

"Listen, Mondo, if you are joking..." Jessie threatened.

The very suggestion offended Mondo. "Miss Jessie, please! Do you think I would joke about that?! I know how important your mother was to you!"

"But do youse think dat it was serious?" Meowth asked. "Maybe it was Butch and Cassidy! Meowth! Dey are capable of pulling a prank like dat!"

"No," James said with conviction. "They don't understand others' feelings well enough to create a practical joke like that."

The four members of Team White Beta were in silence for some time.

Inside Jessie's soul, a terrible storm was raging. For all her life, the only family that she had known had been her mother. However, Jessie lost her when she was only four years old, and she never found out how it had happened. But now, she had a chance of at least learn the truth about her mother! Jessie Gibson decided. Really, she never had any other choice. "Okay!! Then we will discover who is this 'Darkholme' and what this 'Omega' project was!"

James, Mondo and Meowth noticed that Jessie hadn't asked _their_ opinion on this

== == == ==

Samuel Oak breathed in relief when he saw Ash enter in his laboratory. However, his smile disappeared the moment in that saw the seriousness in the expression on the boy's face. Tracey noted a hardness in his friend's eyes, the same hardness he saw when Ash had decided to help Lugia save the world.

"Professor," Ash said in a toneless voice. "How is my mother?"

"She is fine, Ash," Professor Oak said reassuringly. He noticed the way Ash was looking at Tracey's bruised face, the shattered wreckage of the regeneration apparatus and the bruises flaring around the Professor's throat. "We ah had one or two minor _technical_ problems and I thought it best to transfer you mother to one of the beds in my apartments upstairs. I would have preferred to keep her immersed in the regenerative enzyme for longer, but she had spent enough time in there to cure her immediate problems." Professor Oak didn't think it necessary to tell Ash that, with his mother's totally unique biology, there was no way to be certain what was enough and what was not. With a life-form based on a synthetic polymer chain rather than organic proteins, all bets were off.

Ash accepted the explanation. "I understand," he said. "Can I see her?"

"She is sleeping now, Ash," Oak replied gently.

Ash breathed in deeply. _Well,_ he told himself, _now is as good a time as any._ "Pikachu, could you go upstairs and sit with my mother, please?" Ash asked. "I have to talk to Professor Oak about something private."

After the electric-type Pokémon had left, Ash began what he felt might be the most important conversation he had ever been part of. "Professor, I imagine that when I was born, my mother asked for you to examine my genetic code for abnormalities."

"Yes, Ash, she did," Oak confirmed.

Ash nodded. "Am I right in saying that, as far as you know, I am a completely normal and typical human being?"

"Of course!" Oak said firmly. The researcher shifted uncomfortably, not liking the direction this conversation was taking one bit.

"I would be grateful if you could explain _this_, then," Ash said. Ash calmly pulled off his jacket, exposing his forearms. Without changing his expression once, he pulled out his penknife, inserted the blade into his Brachial Vein at his left wrist and slashed the vein open as far as his elbow with one swift move. Blood jetted out of the wound and poured off onto the floor.

There was an instantaneous panic. "Ash! My God, no!" Tracey screamed.

"Ash! No! Why?" Oak reached forward desperately trying to think of some way to stem the loss of blood from such a long incision. Tracey leapt forwards and seized Ash's wrist, trying to find the pressure point that would let him cut off the blood flow into the vein.

"Calm down, guys," Ash said in a quiet and icily-calm tone. "Could I have something to wipe my arm off, please?"

Professor Oak couldn't believe how calm Ash was. The boy was looking at his bleeding arm with an almost _rueful_ expression. Oak blinked and cocked his head in confusion. Was it his old eyes playing tricks, or had the flow of blood suddenly slowed down and stopped? It would take far longer, as much as three minutes, for Ash to bleed out enough of his blood volume for the bleeding rate to decrease like that. As if he was in a dream, Oak grabbed a towel from beside the laboratory's sink, poured some water onto it and passed it to Ash. Ash wiped his arm and both the researcher and his assistant's eyes bulged nearly from their sockets.

There was no new bleeding and no hideous long cut in Ash's forearm. Tracey leaned closer, unable to believe what he was seeing. There was a long red mark along Ash's arm where the cut had been, like a very, very old scar. As he looked on, what seemed to be little arcs of electricity played along the mark and it vanished. In moments, it was as if Ash hadn't even scratched himself.

Tracey swallowed and looked up at Ash's face with a haunted expression. 

Professor Oak could not believe what his eyes were showing him. _But this is impossible!_ the researcher thought, astounded and horrified._ I verified Ash's genes after his birth myself! They were perfectly human! Ash just_ can't _heal so fast!_

Ash smiled humourlessly. "That concludes Act One," he announced. "Don't leave your seats, folks, because Act Two is still to come. I will need a volunteer from the audience."

Ash reached out and seized Tracey's arm. Tracey yelped in surprise and tried to shake his friend off of him. "Just relax, Tracey," Ash said easily. Tracey felt a curious electric sensation and the lights in the room began to shine just a little more brightly. As Professor Oak looked on, the bruises on Tracey's forehead and left cheek quickly faded away _and reappeared on Ash's face!_ The bruises vanished from the young Pokémon Trainer's face just as quickly as they appeared.

There was a long, long, silence. Tracey pulled up his shirt and looked himself over as best as he could. All the bruises on his body had disappeared as had the scar of the appendectomy operation he had when he was only eight years old. With a sudden sinking sensation, Tracey wondered if he _might_ now have an appendix again

Sam Oak's jaw fell open and Tracey was so surprised at what had happened that he didn't even think to sketch his mentor's reaction.

The three people stood in silence for a long moment before Ash spoke in the same, quiet tone of voice he had been using since his arrival. "I think you have an analysis to do, Professor, because..." at this point, Ash's eyes became totally determined, "I want an _answer_ about this."

The old man could only nod in agreement.

== == == ==

One hour later, after Professor Oak had taken samples of Ash's blood, urine, and even a small sample of bone marrow for analysis, Ash climbed up to the residential level of the research centre, to see his mother. Ash almost had a heart attack when he saw Gary walk out of his mother's room carrying a tray.

"Hi Ash!" His rival seemed... concerned?

"Hello Gary."

"Look, man, I really feel badly about what happened to your mom," Gary said in an honest tone. "I hope the burns are not as serious as the bandages they make to seem."

"I hope so too," Ash replied, not understanding what was happening. Why hadn't Gary been scared of the sight of his mother? And why was he talking about burns? Gary turned began to go downstairs. He wasn't surprised by Ash's reaction: if his mother, Sarah, or his sister, May, got badly hurt because someone want steal his Pokémon while he had been away, Gary will have the same reaction...

"And Ash, if you need anything, just say ok?"

"Uh okay," Ash replied with a weak wave at his rival.

Ash and Pikachu looked at each other. _Gary being nice to them?!_ Oh, well... you live and learn

The young League champion and his best Pokémon entered Delilah's room. As soon as he entered, Ash understood why Gary wasn't scared and why he had talked about burns. Delilah's head, arms and hands were bandaged, making it look like she had suffered terrible burns. The moment that she saw Ash, Delilah gasped gladly leapt from the bed to hug her son. When she touched him, however, her polymorphic abilities mapped both his genetic code and his bio-electric field. Delilah instantly realised that her son had changed _profoundly_ since the last time she had touched him, just two days ago.

"Ash what has happened to you?" Delilah asked fearfully.

_Well, it's now or never!_ he thought. "I think that _you_ can answer that... Mom," Ash replied.

Delilah swallowed dryly. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well... I think you... _left out_ some things when you told me about your mutation. You told me that was something natural and that I had normal genes. If that is so... how is it possible that my body _heals_ any injury almost _instantly?_ How can I heal any injury in anyone I touch? How is it that my senses have become so acute that I can sense a man hiding behind a bush _fifty metres away_ from me? And, most importantly, why did Cassidy talk about you to _"going back"_ to Team Rocket?" Delilah opened her mouth to speak, but Ash interrupted her. "Sure, I can believe that Team Rocket might have kidnapped you and done experiments on you in the past," he said, "but in that case, _how_ do you know how to use your powers so well in a fight? How can you know how to use any number of different Pokémon attacks and use them to your best advantage? _Pure instinct?_ I'm sorry, Mom, but I can't believe that." Ash breathed deeply and waited for his mother to reply.

She looked at her son's face and saw an anger and a pitiless harshness that made her think of the inquisitors in Team Rocket. When she didn't speak, Ash continued. _"Mom, were you a member of Team Rocket?"_ he asked, quietly and firmly.

Delilah Ketchum felt her legs weaken. She sat down on the bedroom floor and she lifted her eyes to Ash, that was in front of her with his arms crossed, waiting for her answer. She knew that she didn't have choice.

"Ash, ask Mimey to bring me a small black box from the secret panel in my bedroom, and then..." she sighed. "Then, I will tell you everything."

Her son just shook his head once and then left the room, his steps rigid with anger and fear.

When she was alone in the room, Delilah heard the cold and sadistic inner voice of Omega to murmur, in a happy tone: "_That's it. You can't escape anymore. He won't just hate you, he will give you up to the authorities."_

"Shut up!" Delilah thought, her green snake-like eyes shining. She hugged her knees to her chest and stayed there in that position until Ash returned...

== == == == ==

In a maximum security building in the downtown Viridian, a black-haired man watched a video file that had been captured by one of his agents. The file had been "acquired" from Cerulean City's Cascade Gym.

"Interesting." he murmured, when he saw that the young trainer from Pallet Town absorbed his orange-haired friend's wounds. He knew the girl.

Verifying the data that he had, everything fit in the places. The dates, the names, the data that his informer had supplied. The man pressed a button in his desk.

"Stacy, arrange a meeting as soon as possible with the Security Council. Security Level Ultraviolet."

"Yes, General." A woman's voice answered.

The man smiled. He needed to formulate a strategy, of course, but all being well, soon the United Nations Defense Forces would be able to call upon the most powerful biological weapon ever made by man...

== == == == ==

Delilah opened and closed the box, without knowing where to she should begin. She had removed all her bandages, thinking that, as she was about to make a confession to her son, she _should_ be able to look him in his eyes. But suddenly she wondered where she would get the courage to do so.

_She seems... lost_, Ash thought. He had never seen his mother like this, in_ that _way. He felt badly for placing her in this situation. However, something inside told him that if he didn't force her to tell the truth _now_, he would never have courage to ask her again...

Delilah looked at Ash, and took the control necklace and the photo of her with her sister out of the box. "In answer to your question, Ash... I... I think this picture will say everything that needs to be said."

Ash looked at the photograph and then closed his eyes for one moment. _Well, that's it._ There was the evidence that his mother had been part of Team Rocket. There was her, smiling, wearing a white Rocket uniform, similar to Jessie's, except for the fact she didn't have the ridiculous mid-waist cut out from her black bodysuit. Then, Ash noticed the smiling young woman in the hospital bed, holding a baby.

"Who is she?"

"That is Diane Miyamoto, my younger sister."

"_Sister?!_ You have a sister?" Ash asked, his eyes bulging out. "I I have _an aunt?_"

"I _had_ a sister." The mutant woman closed her eyes for a long moment before continuing. Then she suddenly looked at Ash. "How old do you think I am?" she asked.

"Huh? Well, you were 37 years old at your last birthday _weren't you?_"

Delilah smiled humourlessly. "Wrong," she said. "I'm actually 51 years old." Delilah smiled slightly as she observed her son's astonishment at hearing that 'minor detail.' "If she were alive, my sister would be 42." Delilah fell silent for a moment before continuing. "Well, perhaps I should start at the beginning. My name was not Delilah Ketchum until I 'left' Team Rocket. Until that moment, my name was Delia Hanako Darkholme."

_She lied even about her name,_ Ash thought, feeling betrayed for no reason he could fix in his mind.

"Miya and I were what they called "Team Rocket's Blood and Soul." Our parents were also members of the organization. Indeed, the Darkholme family has been part of Team Rocket as long as the Carpenters, who founded the organization. Well, my sister and I continued the family tradition. In time, she and I became the best infiltration and acquisition team that they had."

"Infiltration and acquisition? Do you mean _robbery?_"

Delilah looked downwards in shame. She couldn't face the expression of accusation and censure in her son's eyes. She just _couldn't_.

"Yes. You are right. If you check the newspapers from twenty to twenty-five years ago, you will find news articles about a series of assaults at Pokémon Centers all over Indigo Island. We were the ones who executed them."

"Did you... did you ever kill anybody?" Ash swallowed dryly when he asked that question. Pikachu, feeling his Trainer's fear, hid behind Ash's legs.

"No." The green serpent-like eyes looked into Ash's for a moment, burning with a desperation and honesty that convinced Ash, but he knew there was something unsaid. "Well," Delilah continued after a moment, "not until... until I was transformed into _this_!" She lowered her head again. She couldn't escape from the truth, and she owed it to her son not to even try.

Ash was sat in silence while he slowly assimilated all the implications of his mother's words, especially the part about her being _transformed_. "Mom," he asked, "what happened that made you become... what are you now?"

Now, the tone of Delilah's voice was completely cold. Ash could feel the anger that she felt very well. "Well, four years after that picture that you are holding was taken, my sister disappeared in a mission to capture the Legendary Pokémon Mew, that people thought that live in the Ice Mountains. A few days after receiving the official notice of her death, I discovered that my niece was missing and no-one either knew or was willing to tell me her whereabouts."

_She means the baby in the photo,_ Ash thought. I have a cousin_ I wonder what she is like, if she is still alive?_

"I tried to discover what happened with them," Delilah continued, "and it seems that my inquiries were not very well received by the High Inner Council of Team Rocket." She laughed sarcastically. "To cut a long story short, I discovered, with a little help from a Red Rocket that I knew," she didn't mention the fact that they were dating, "what had really happened: My sister had discovered, purely by accident, that Team Rocket was trying to create a hybrid being, half-human, half-Pokémon. Madam Boss, the leader of Team Rocket in my time, called it "The Greek Alphabet Program." She ordered my sister go to the Ice Mountains where..." Delilah had to force herself to speak, when she arrived in that point. Anger and a pain she had never forgotten were boiling up inside her heart. "They were waiting for her Ash. They killed her with a shot in the back of the head. As a 'routine security precaution!' How do I know about that, you ask? Well, when I learnt about what my sister had discovered, I went to face Madam Boss and she admitted it. She told me, _and she laughed in my face!_" Tears of sadness and rage ran down the gel-like face of the former Rocket agent. "She said that if I didn't want anything to happen to my niece, I would be a good girl and keep in line."

Delilah took a moment to try to compose herself, but it was hard. "Well, it didn't take me too long to find out that the organization _wasn't_ holding my niece, indeed that she had disappeared the same day as Miya had. Of course, it was pretty clear what they had done with her. I decided then and there that Team Rocket had become too sick to cure. I decided to put an end to it. With my high security clearance, it was child's play to collect enough information about the organisation to ensure that the Security Police could _destroy_ them. I had lost everything, Ash, and as sure as hell didn't care anymore about what the consequences might be. I _didn't_ care what might happen to me. After all, the worst they could do would only be to kill me, right? But, they discovered what I was doing and I found that I was wrong about that."

She sighed. "In a surprising moment of humour, Madam Boss decided a traitor like me should compensate for my mistakes by serving as a guinea pig for the Greek Alphabet Program. I was designated as worthy of being a test subject for the very apex of the Program, Project Omega. It was there that they transformed me in this... monster that you see now."

Delilah risked a quick look at her son. His expression in his face was unreadable. "I became Omega, the most powerful agent that they ever had; a living weapon. My powers were due to their grafting several genetic codes of Pokémon onto my own DNA. Actually, my DNA was rewritten to accept Ditto genes, from where I get my polymorphic abilities. Those genes were augmented with the genes of several other Pokémon: Charmander, Squirtle, Gyarados, Kangashan, Alakazam, Umbreon and others. Hell, they even figured out how to code the bio-electronic patterns of the Voltorb and Magnemite into my genes. And then, of course, they had to reconstruct my body."

"Reconstruct your body?" Ash asked confused.

"Ash, you cannot put Pokémon genes in an adult human being and to hope his or her body could survive. The first dozen or so 'test subjects' died of cancer before they left the operating table. To overcome that problem, they reconstructed each cell of my body, molecule-by-molecule with a synthetic adaptive protein, similar the one that composes the body of a Ditto, with the help of nanotechnology."

Ash swallowed dryly, trying to imagine to have each and every cell in his body physically rebuilt at the molecular level. He could not. "Wait a moment, Mom, I know how powerful you are. Why you didn't escape Team Rocket as soon as they finished the process?"

"They are not stupid, Ash. They _knew_ what were creating, so they took measures to... to avoid any _unwanted behaviour_, if you allow me put in this way. The first measure was the development of the Serum, a medicine that I am forced to take at regular intervals. If I don't I lose control about my morphing power and I develop what they called "independent evolution," when the genes that they placed to allow my body to mutate so quickly go out of control and start to develop on their own. Before I started taking the Serum, there were times when I woke up with eyes of a Bulbasaur or the wings of a Golbat. The Serum also had the function of leaving my nervous system open to the bio-electric commands from the Control Necklace. That was the second control measure, by the way." Delilah picked up the necklace with the electronic circuits printed onto its' surface.

Ash knew all about that damned thing: He knew that Team Rocket used a similar device to make Pokémon do things that _no one_ wanted to imagine...

"When that _thing_ was attached to me, I became a slave... in every sense of the word," Delilah continued, starting to cry, her voice broken with sobs. "I had no control over my actions, my mind and my body. I couldn't control what I did I couldn't even control my own _thoughts_. I did as I was commanded. I did _anything_ I was commanded." Delilah trembled and Ash didn't want to ask what she meant with her last comment. He was sure that would not want to hear the answer. Delilah only could be grateful for Ash's silence: This way she didn't need tell him about what Madam Boss and the scientist responsible for the Project referred to as "The Pleasure Shift"

"What did you did while you were Omega?"

Delilah's eyes had the hollow look of a person condemned to death. The woman refused to look her son in the eye. "I did enough to have my own part of Hell reserved for me. Enough that I know that I _am_ a monster. I am a monster in body and soul."

It was clear to Ash that his mother feared her past and that she felt shame for what she had done. But why did she feel so _responsible?_ After all, she had told him how that diabolical control necklace had made her little more than a remote control robot. Ash shook his head and returned to his mother's story. "Mom, how did escape from Team Rocket?" he asked in a whisper.

She sighed again. "In one of the special missions, a shot damaged the Necklace's main processor chip. From that moment, I began to become _aware_ of myself and of what I was doing." She bit her lower lip. "I hope you never experience anything like that Ash. I was could see and hear everything. I could observe as I committed the most horrible crimes and I couldn't do a single thing to stop myself. My awareness was too weak to override the Necklace's control and I was like a passenger in my own body, until"

"Until what?"

Delilah lowered her green eyes and murmured her reply. "Until I became pregnant with you."

== == == == ==

Professor Oak and Tracey worked feverishly to discover _how_ Ash was capable to perform the miracles that they had witnessed. While Tracey operated the analysis instruments, Sam Oak operated the computer. He compared Ash's DNA from the moment of the birth, his current DNA and Delilah's DNA. Then, he saw what had ignored thirteen years ago because he didn't realise its' significance. "My God, I'm an_ idiot!_" he exclaimed, slapping himself on the forehead.

"Professor?"

"Here Tracey. Do you see that sequence that repeats in Ash's DNA and Delilah's DNA? Here, in chromosome X?"

"Yes."

"Well, that is the gene that permits primate DNA to mutate. It is the essential basis of human biological evolution. In it, there are several inserts from Pokémon DNA; Ditto DNA, to be specific. It is what allowed Ash to acquire his 'healing factor.'"

"How come?" Poor Tracey couldn't keep up with his mentor's deductive leaps.

"In the case of Delilah, her polymorphic abilities are primarily in the form of her shape-shifting abilities. In Ash's case, the Ditto DNA has concentrated on its' regenerative properties. Simply put, when he is injured, his body automatically morphs itself to repair the injury." Tracey was astonished, but Oak had still further revelations. "Great portions of Delilah's genetic code are pure Pokémon genes, and these are easily identifiable. However, in Ash's genetic code, the hybridisation is more subtle, more 'evolved' if you will excuse the term. If you look at chromosomes 7, 12, and 17, you will see that there are short sections of Pokémon genetic code there too. Those chromosomes control the operation of the immunological system and the cicatrization process. These mutations kind of "turbo-charged" those processes. These three mutations combined allowed the effects that we saw."

_And we felt_. Tracey thought. "But Professor Oak, how does this explain how Ash heals _others?_"

Oak raised a finger. "That is something that I think we can attribute to the Ditto DNA that seems to appear in several parts of Ash's genetic code. When a Ditto uses its Duplicate attack, it maps and copies its' subject's genetic code and bio-electric field. Ash's body does the same thing, but instead of copying the subject, his body identifies and absorbs anomalies: bruises, cuts, fractures, possibly even disease organisms, and by doing so, it restores the subject's body to its' 'optimum' state as defined by their DNA. His body then deals with the absorbed anomalies like it would any other injury."

"That's incredible!" Tracey blurted. "But Professor, why are there differences between the two readings of his DNA?"

"Here I can only speculate," the Professor admitted. "The medical samples that we took indicate that Ash has experienced a great deal of emotional stress recently, which is hardly news when you consider what he must have gone through when he found out about his mother. Now, towards the end of the last century, there was a geneticist named Professor Charles Xavier who suggested, and this was _highly_ controversial at the time, that moments of high stress could trigger recessive genes and force the body to generate completely new biological traits. This could be anything; enhanced senses, massively boosted strength and endurance, psychic powers, even the ability to generate and manipulate energy fields. I believe that the mutation factor Delilah passed to Ash, let us call it Omega Factor for the sake of argument, was, as Xavier predicted, activated by strong emotional stress. The larger the stress, faster the process happens. Ash has naturally been under a higher-than-usual level of stress over the last few months, what with winning the Global League on top of going into puberty shortly before his thirteenth birthday. And then he learnt the truth about his mother The Omega Factor responded by forcing a total restructuring of the underlying DNA that acts as its' host, activating all the Pokémon genetic sequences that had remained dormant and hidden until then." Samuel Oak remembered that Ash seemed sick before going to Cerulean City. He had not understood why the boy seemed ill at the time but, in retrospect, he realised it was his immune system's last desperate attempts to stop the massive mutation process that was rewriting the boy's entire genetic code. "We are living witnesses to the most incredible discovery in the history of human biology, Tracey. Ash has been changing, slowly, for at least the last six months, but after learning about his mother, the process was raised to another level entirely. For the very first time, a human has _evolved_ just like a Pokémon..."

"One moment!" Something that the Professor said had alarmed the Pokémon Watcher. "Do you mean... that isn't the end? That if Ash was put under enough stress he might _evolve again?_"

The researcher shook his head. "That I don't know, Tracey. The highly unstable nature of Ditto DNA makes everything uncertain. I sincerely don't know..."

== == == == ==

Ash Ketchum was completely shocked. "Huh?!?! What do you mean by that?!"

"Ash, please..."

"I'm sorry, Mom, but now that you've started, you will have to finish it!"

Delilah sucked in a deep breath. Ash was right, of course. "Team Rocket was thinking of creating another Omega, one that might even be more powerful than me, the original. Well, to create another Omega using the same process used on me would be a lot of work. At that time, Team Rocket didn't dominate the field of cloning the way they do now, although there were rumours of something called 'Project Mewtwo' that was offering encouraging results. Then, they had a brainwave: Why not use the original Omega to reproduce herself? Of course, there was the question of whether I could have children. I told you the truth when I said I was totally sterile; the reconstruction process completely destroyed my reproductive system, but I _am_ a polymorph. In time, they were able to induce my body to produce an ovum. They fertilised the ovum _in vitro_ with the sperm of some anonymous member of the organization. Then they implanted the zygote into my body, which responded automatically by producing a uterus and nurturing the growing child."

"Then, am I nothing but a laboratory experiment? Just a test?" Ash asked in such a low tone that even Delilah had difficulty hearing it. She didn't have courage to answer. What answer could she give anyway? Ash looked up at his mother. "And then?" he asked.

"For two months, the pregnancy continued without any complications. I remained completely functional and combat-capable. The baby was developing normally. The scientists were sure now that I could have children without any problems. However, when they examined your genetic code, they found that you were essentially human, Ash. You were going to be normal, not a new Omega. That meant your usefulness to Team Rocket had ended and they discussed aborting you. They wanted to murder you, Ash! I... I could not let that happen, you... you were _my son!_" Now she cried for two reasons: she was already certain that she had lost Ash's love forever, and she was also having to make him suffer by telling him the truth of how he came into the world. "_That_ finally gave me the strength I needed to break free of their control over my mind. I broke out of the laboratory and fled the Team Rocket base. I I killed a Rocket in the process."

"Well, I think I can cut the story short now. Using some contacts that I know in the underworld, and some of what I 'learned' through Team Rocket, I got a new identity, that of Delilah Ketchum, and I came to live here in Pallet Town. For a while I survived as a cat burglar and spent every other waking moment carefully hiding what I really _was_. I only wanted to forget my past and to try to create the best son that I could. But, one day, the pain from not taking the Serum became too much and I knew that I needed help. The only person I could think of who might be able to help me was Samuel Oak, the town's resident Pokémon researcher. I broke into his laboratories, ready to _force_ him to help me on the pain of death, but then I lost control and he saw me transform into my 'default' form, just as you did not to long ago." Delilah sucked in a breath. "Sam was able to figure out my body's requirements fairly quickly, I'm broadly similar to a Ditto in the strictest biological terms. He was able to synthesise a substitute for the Serum, which I have been taking ever since. Along the way, I told him everything and he helped me settle down by getting me a job as a translator working for a publishing company in Viridian City. Four months after that you were born and the rest you know, of course."

Ash was sitting very still, his face lowered into his cupped hands, hidden. Even so, Delilah could see the tears running from between his fingers.

"Ash, I know that lied to you, that I deceived you... but I... I was afraid of what you would do... of what you would think of me... I love you, Ash... I know that you can't believe me after all the lies I've told, and I would be a fool if I thought otherwise but I... I" Delilah fell silent, feeling utterly defeated. How could she explain how, after she reached the mainland, she had suddenly become fully aware of who and what she was, and that the only thing that stopped her from throwing herself into a volcano or a vat of acid to end the living nightmare of her existence was the fact she was carrying a son? How was she supposed to explain that for every minute of every day since that moment it was Ash that had kept her alive and sane? How could she explain that he was the only thing that kept her anchored to her humanity? How could she explain that he was _the most important thing in her existence?_

Ash didn't say anything for a long time. Delilah lowered the head. "You hate me," she murmured. She accepted that. It was the perfect retribution for her many crimes.

Ash rose from his chair and walked over to Delilah, his face lowered and his fists tightly clenched. Delilah could not see his eyes. He knelt before her, raised her face to his and then, suddenly, launched himself forward and hugged her tightly.

"Ash...!" Delilah said, tears beginning to flow.

"Mom, I _am_ upset for you for not telling me the truth before, but I think that my rage proves that you were _right_ in not do it in first place." Ash lifted his brown eyes and looked into his mother's alien green eyes. Delilah didn't see hate, nor rage. She saw love and forgiveness. He had felt her honesty, the shame that she felt about herself, and... the love that she felt for him. "I still have a difficult time accepting that the person you _admitted_ that you _were_ and that the person that I _know_ that you _are_ is one and the same, but I don't hate you, after all..." suddenly, Ash smiled, and that smile filled his mother's heart with a warmth she feared she would never feel again. "After all, I know that you were and _are _telling the truth when you say that you love me."

Pikachu watched the two humans hugging each other No, _not_ human, and _not_ Pokémon either, but something _new_ and _special_ As Ash hugged his mother, stroking her hair and comforting her as she cried, the little electric-type reflected that together, they were stronger than they ever would be apart.

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	9. Deception

The Omega Mutation chapter 9

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter_

_**Chapter 9 - Deception**_

Delilah paced back and forth in her room. She couldn't stop thinking about the discussion that she and Ash had with Professor Oak that morning, only a day after she had confessed about her nightmare past to her son. Professor Oak had explained the origin of Ash's healing powers, something that made her feel incredibly guilty: Her son had the same fundamental mutation that she had. He had inherited her _curse_.

"Chi ...ri-rita-rita-Chiko-ko-kori-tachi?" [Um... Mrs. Ketchum, don't you think you should go back to bed?] Chikorita asked, interrupting her thoughts. Ash had asked the small Plant-Type Pokémon to watch Delilah, and to make sure she stayed resting in her bed (even if she needed use her Vine Whips to tie his mother down!)

Delilah tried for one moment to modify her vocal chords to answer in the Pokémon's own language, but it was too painful. She sighed and answered: "Chikorita, please! I have to think. I am very worried for Ash."

Sam had said that was _extremely_ unlikely... but Ash's genetic code _could change_ again, if he suffered enough stress... It would have to be a very high level, but it _could_ happen... And if it happened, _what form would it take?_ The Omega Factor contained all the same genetic blueprints that made Delilah what she _was_. Could it turn Ash into a _a monster_ like she was? Delilah was not a religious person, but she found herself praying desperately that it would not be that Merciful God, _anything_ but that

Chikorita jumped up on the bed and glared at Delilah threateningly. "Rita-rita-ri, Kochi-chiko!" [Mrs. Ketchum, I have to insist!]

Delilah had to smile at the little plant-type's dedication. She had no doubt that if she kept pacing, Chikorita _would_ try to tie her down with her vine whips. "Okay," Delilah said, raising her hands in surrender. The mutant woman lay down on the bed and covered herself with a thin sheet, more from habit that from necessity (she could easily survive the Antarctic winter when the sun did not rise for a month). She looked at the clock: 11 am. Ash said that he would be repairing their house, with the help of his Pokémon and of Mimey, but at noon, he was going to visit her so they could eat lunch together.

Delilah noted that there was something important that she still had to discuss with her son. Somehow, she had to convince Ash never, _ever_ to use his power of healing again.

== == == == ==

Several dozen kilometres away, another mutant woman was pacing back and forth in her private rooms. She was a tall, thin woman with long dark-green hair. Sabrina Bowman, the Leader of Saffron City's Marsh Gym was thinking about what had happened just two days ago.

Sabrina had been meditating, an exercise she undertook daily in an attempt to govern and restrain her immense psychic powers. That day, however, as her mind explored deeper and deeper layers of the universe, she suddenly felt the most incredible power wash over her. The psychic shock wave slammed against her mental shields like a tsunami. Her scream of agony brought her parents and all her Pokémon rushing to her side as she writhed on the floor, foaming at the mouth. When she recovered, somehow she knew that at that very moment, something had come into the world. Something had _evolved_ (there was no better description) that would _change_ the destiny of the human race... _forever_.

It had been difficult for her to analyse this particular psychic flash or premonition, whatever it was. Unlike every other precognitive vision she had experienced there were no sounds or images, nothing intelligible at all. Nothing except a deep, absolute, near-instinctive _certainty_ that something new and important had been born.

Sabrina shook her head and looked through the window of her office while absently stroking Kadabra's warm, furry head. Almost involuntarily, her eyes were drawn to the south-west. There was no doubt in her mind that whatever had happened, was happening and was yet to take place was going to happen in the small town that lay in that direction.

Pallet Town.

== == == == ==

In the Team Rocket base, near Viridian City, three injured Black Rockets were in a cold sweat. They were Butch Seaborg, Cassidy Longstreet, and Domino Pfaster. The cause of their terror was Giovanni's furious glare, directed to them through the monitor.

"So," Giovanni said in a deadly level voice, "I am to understand that you failed?"

There was a long silence in the briefing room before Cassidy kicked Domino in the shins under the table. The young woman glared at her subordinate, but realised that, as the team leader, she would have to reply. "Yes, Boss," Domino said quietly, not daring to meet Giovanni's gaze.

"And, if that wasn't enough, you decided to violate a _direct order_ by attempting to use Omega's offspring against her!" Giovanni's voice rose slightly and Domino suddenly felt the need to grovel and beg for her life.

"Boss, I..."

_"Shut up!"_ Giovanni's shout made all three Black Rockets jump in terror. "Your reasons _don't _interest me, Agent Pfaster!" Giovanni breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down. "Simply be grateful that I regard the injuries that Omega inflicted on you punishment enough for your insubordination! However, if you ever, _ever_ disobey me like this again, I will have all three of you _executed!_" The three agents looked at their Boss, stunned by the level of his anger. "Dismissed!"

Butch, Cassidy and Domino fled the briefing room, their prides as thoroughly bruised and broken as their bodies.

In his office, the boss of Team Rocket read the intelligence reports. One particular piece of information immediately caught his attention. His spies had spotted large number of the known agents of the Military Intelligence agency of the United Nations Defense Forces in either Pallet Town or Cerulean City over the last few days. There was only one possible reason why UNDF-MI would be so interested in two such unremarkable places. They knew about Omega.

Giovanni could not help wondering if the UN military _really_ understood the power that they were risking awakening and turning against them. In the semi-gloom of his office, Giovanni's smile became slightly cruel as he imagined what Delia would do to the biggest and most powerful adversaries of Team Rocket if they dared to anger her

== == == == ==

Ash had returned to the Pallet Town Pokémon Research Center, tired because of the work that he needed to do to his shattered home. The fight between his mother and that Rocket must have really been ugly! However, with another week's effort, it should be inhabitable again._ I only hope Chikorita managed to keep my mother resting,_ he thought as he carried their lunch up the stairs to his mother's room.

About fifteen minutes later, after they had finished their lunch, Ash was just getting ready to take the dirty dishes downstairs to the kitchen when his mother asked him to stay for a moment. "Yes, Mom?"

Delilah breathed deeply. "Ash, you know that you have a mutation, a little like mine."

"Yes."

"And that this mutation gives you... certain powers..."

"That's right," Ash confirmed. He waited for her next words, although he already had an idea of what it was...

"Ash, I am asking you no I'm _begging_ you not to use the more visible of your powers. You mustn't use them, and you _mustn't_ tell anyone about any of your special abilities, even your enhanced senses."

The black-haired boy was silent for a minute before answering. "I'm sorry, Mom, but I don't think I can do that."

"But, Ash..." Delilah leaned forward and grabbed her son's hands in her own, desperate to make him _see_.

"Please! Let me explain!" Ash asked, lifting his arms in a defensive gesture. "Mom, I understand why you are asking me this. You think as soon as I next use my... _ability_, I would almost immediately find myself in a laboratory, or being chased by the authorities as if I were a menace or a monster, just like in the comic books that I read." Delilah looked so surprised that Ash had to smile. "Well, I was thinking about that last night. I know that the odds don't look very good for me, but still..."

Delilah interrupted, trying to communicate the _necessity_ of absolute secrecy. "But, Ash, you need..."

He kindly placed an index finger on her lips, silencing her. "Mom, you're forgetting the most important point. Because I have the ability to help people, then I _must_ help them. I don't want to do this because it's some unwritten law or because it might make me rich and famous. I want to do this because _it is the right thing to do_. _You_ were the one who taught me that, Mom. You once told me that I was your hero. You see, Mom, like it or not, both in power and in motive, I'm like this _because of you_. I have to help other people, no matter how much trouble that gets me in. I do this because I know that you would do exactly _the same thing_ in my place."

There was a long quiet moment before Delilah gently moved Ash's hand from her lips. In her eyes, she was no longer looking at a young boy, but a fine, decent and mature man. His reasons showed exactly how much the terrible events of the last few days had matured him. Delilah could not help but feel immensely proud of him. "You know, Ash, you can't go around spending your time curing every cold, flu or scratch suffered by anyone on the planet!"

Ash rolled his eyes. "I know that, Mom!" He exclaimed in exasperation. "Don't worry, I'm not going to start wearing a yellow spandex costume or anything!"

Delilah restrained a laugh at the mental image that his comment provoked. "Be that as it may, Ash," she said, "but I will ask you to restrain yourself. Please keep your abilities hidden, and only ever use them as a last resort. Whenever you do use them, please do so in secret. Can you agree to that?"

Ash considered that request for a moment before shrugging easily. "Sure, that seems reasonable." Delilah breathed a sigh of relief. "One thing Mom," Ash continued. "There is someone else who knows about my abilities besides you, Professor Oak and Tracey. Misty."

Delilah jumped involuntarily. "Huh? How did _she_ find out?"

Ash sucked in a deep breath. "You know that Misty saw you fighting Butch and Cassidy," he said. Delilah nodded. "Well, I went after her to try and convince her to keep quiet about what she saw. She wouldn't see me at first, I think that she thought I was going to try to kill her or something. Anyway, I broke into the Cascade Gym and she panicked. She tried to escape through one of the skylights over the Gym's fighting arena and fell to the floor." Ash shuddered, hearing the snap of bones and smelling blood and death again. "She _she died_, Mom," he said gently, tears beginning to trickle down his cheeks. "I went crazy with grief I I never realised how I felt about her before. How much I needed her. How much that that I I _love_ her. My powers kicked in for the very first time and, I know how that sounds, but I brought her back to life. It almost killed me, but I _had_ to do it. When she came to, I was lying there, my Healing Factor repairing the injuries I had absorbed from her body."

Delilah was appalled. Suddenly, with a clear certainty, she knew exactly what had triggered her hallucination while she was in the rejuvenation apparatus. "My God..." Delilah murmured.

Ash shivered involuntarily and stood up to leave the room.

"Ash," Delilah said gently. Her son turned to face her. "How sure are you _really_ sure, I mean, that you can trust Misty?" Delilah immediately regretted opening her mouth. The look of anger and accusation her son shot in her direction made her feel cold and abandoned.

"Mom, I'm only going to say this _once_ again," Ash announced. "I love Misty and I know that she loves me. I trust her with all my secrets without any reservation. I would even trust her with my _life!_"

Ash strode from the room. Delilah watched him go, marvelling at the strength of his feelings for the girl from Cerulean City. _I hope that you win your bet, Ash_, she thought unhappily.

== == == == ==

_It was late in the night, when a Spearow landed in front of the Cascade Gym. Then, the flying-type Pokémon began to grow and changing into a human form. In a woman, actually. She was completely dressed in black, and was wearing a black ski mask. However, that didn't hide her glowing green snake-like eyes, or the long red hair tied back into a braid. She approached of the door and then flowed smoothly into a blue fluid that insinuated itself through the narrow gap between the leaves of the doors._

_The invader walked quietly in direction to the Gym Leader's residence. She stopped in front of the door of Misty Williams's room. Her black-gloved hand opened the door. She approached the sleeping girl with the silent agility of a Persian._

_The shadow of the invader fell over Misty's sleeping form. Her right hand quickly metamorphosed into a razor sharp blade. With a single motion, the invader slashed the blade across the girl's throat. Her life bled away quickly, and she died without once regaining consciousness._

_The invader's face changed, the ski mask turning into a human face. Delilah Ketchum looked at the blood on her hand and the pool of blood spreading across the bed in front of her with a cruel, inhuman smile..._

Delilah was awake in an instant, her eyes staring and her body covered with fear sweat. She looked around her in disorientation. She was still at the Research Centre. She stared at her hands. They were clean. No blood. It had been a nightmare.

Delilah hid her blue face in her hands for a moment. _How could I even_ imagine _murdering an innocent girl like that?_ she asked herself. And if she _could_ think of it without conscious desire maybe maybe She didn't even want to try to finish that thought.

Delilah fled to the next room along, Ash's bedroom and hugged her sleeping son tightly. "Ash my darling, I'm so sorry," she said, starting to cry. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry"

"Mom, what?" Ash asked sleepily, roused by his mother's hug. He didn't understand what was wrong, but spent some time unsuccessfully trying to comfort her.

== == == == ==

It was one week later. _I don't know what I'm doing here!_ Delilah said to herself. While their house was largely rebuilt, Delilah still had thousands of security improvements to implement in preparation for the return of Team Rocket. Her former colleagues would try again, of that much she was certain. Instead of being at home, making the necessary changes, she was at the Foundation Square Theatre, watching a Pokémon show!

Ash had practically dragged her to the show, insisting that she needed a break soon and ignoring her peevish protests that her genetically modified biology didn't _need_ relaxation to stay healthy. When she saw the marquee display outside the theatre announcing that the performer was 'Denise Maxwell is "Duplica – Ditto Master,"' she suspected that this was some kind of joke on Ash's part. On the other hand, maybe it was coincidence. She simply didn't have the courage to ask.

What made the experience worse was Ash and Misty sitting together beside her. Her son and the orange-haired girl were talking together quietly and occasionally laughing at Duplica's hideous puns. Delilah _wanted_ to trust Misty, she truly did. However, the inner voice of Omega was completely paranoiac and was screaming repeatedly that the girl would inevitably eventually betray them both.

"Ash, I need go to the bathroom," she whispered as she got up. Duplica had just announced that she and her Ditto would imitate a pair of Bulbasaurs.

A few minutes later, Delilah was looking at her face in the mirror. She had regained her polymorphic abilities and was in her 'human' disguise. She resembled a redheaded woman in her early thirties. She was wearing her black raincoat, a long dress with a high neckline and knee-length boots. Real clothes, too. This meant that, besides her head and hands, she could keep the rest of her body in her 'default' form. She still wasn't back to 100% strength yet, and the less effort she had to make, the better.

"Mrs. Ketchum?"

Delilah jumped involuntarily and turned around. Misty had followed her. "Huh... Hi, Misty," she said neutrally.

"Mrs. Ketchum, I think need to talk with you."

"About what?"

"I wanted say that I'm sorry for the way that I reacted that night."

_Oh, Boy! This is not the place or the time for this!_ "All right, Misty!" Delilah said hurriedly, "but shouldn't we discuss that at home?" Delilah gave the most forced smile she had ever attempted in her life.

Misty looked levelly at her boyfriend's mother. Delilah had always been a kind person, open and welcoming to everyone. However, that had changed since the revelation of her mutant powers. Now she was always on edge whenever Misty was about. It was almost as if she _couldn't_ trust her... "You don't trust me, do you?" Misty asked.

_Great! I don't have way of escaping of such a direct question!_ "Well...of. of course I trust you, Misty!" Delilah lied smoothly.

Misty wasn't fooled. She looked at Delilah quietly for a while. She was willing to bet Togepi that Delilah was afraid she would tell someone about her. Maybe her dad; he was a big shot in the UNDF, after all. "Mrs. Ketchum, Ash tells me that you have the abilities of a psychic-type Pokémon. That includes the ability to scan people's deepest thoughts, isn't that the case?" Delilah nodded mutely, wondering where this was going. "I want you to scan my mind," Misty said. "Prove to yourself that you _can_ trust me." Misty shivered involuntarily, but was resolute. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain of another mind invading her own.

Delilah looked at Misty in disbelief. The girl _couldn't_ possibly know what she was asking. Delilah reached out mentally and touched the outer layers of Misty's psyche, feeling the undisciplined power of her mind and the feelings that dominated her consciousness, most of them quite _emotional_ things about Ash. Suddenly the mutant woman shook her head. "No," she said. "That isn't necessary, Misty. The fact you are willing to do this indicates that you have nothing to hide." Delilah touched Misty on the shoulder and tried to smile reassuringly. "Misty, dear, this isn't about you," she continued. "It is about _me_. After everything I've gone through in my life, it is very, very difficult for me to trust _anyone_. But I am trying to trust you, and... I want to say I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings in any way."

"It's all right, Mrs. Ketchum." Misty said with a sunny smile and left the bathroom. Delilah sighed and, soon after, returned to her seat.

It was close to the end of the show when Duplica made the announcement. "Now, I will need a volunteer from the audience! Maybe yes, the lady in the black raincoat? Come on, be a sport!"

Delilah swallowed dryly. "M-Me?" she asked plaintively.

"Go on, Mom." Ash whispered, seemingly about to laugh. "Duplica doesn't bite!"

Standing on the stage under all the spotlights, a very embarrassed Delilah Ketchum waited to find out what would be her role in the act. Duplicia pulled a Pokéball from her belt and held it up. "You've already met my wonderful Ditto," she announced. "Well now, ladies and gentlemen, there is here the special act that you were waiting for! The Ditto able to imitate _people_, Xerox!" The light green-haired girl pressed the 'release' pad on Xerox's Pokéball. There was a flash of white light and the small pink blob with a happy face materialised on the stage right in front of Delilah, who restrained an instinct to use Ember on it. "Xerox – _Duplicate,_" Duplica commanded.

There was a long, long pause as the Ditto stared at the woman standing in front of him. He gave Duplica a puzzled look and then turned his attention back to Delilah. Suddenly, the Ditto began to glow, swell and grow, taking on a humanoid shape. As quickly as it started, the transformation stopped and Xerox, still in his 'default' form sat there, still staring at Delilah. "Ditto!" he called happily.

There were some mutters of discontent from the audience. "Are you okay, Xerox?" Duplicia asked her little friend.

"Ditto-it-ito-di!" Xerox cried out and suddenly leapt into Delilah's arms. The morphing-type Pokémon began to rub his face against Delilah's cheek frantically, shouting 'Dit-it!" over and over again. He even managed to kiss her a few times before Duplica managed to recall the little creature to his Pokéball.

Duplica had apologised to the audience, telling them that Xerox wasn't feeling too well. The show ended with Duplica and her first Ditto performing a series of quick-changes, always keeping to the elemental types best suited to beat the other's in battle.

Afterwards, as the audience was filing out of the theatre, Duplica appeared and grabbed Delilah. "Madam, I can't apologise enough," she said nervously. "Xerox never usually acts like that."

"I hope that you've got a better explanation that _that_ Duplica," Ash said angrily. She turned to see Ash and Misty.

Misty had linked her arm with Ash's and the two were looking very happy in each other's company. Perhaps only Delilah saw the jealousy and pain that briefly flared in the Imaté master's eyes before she replied. "Ash?" she said. She quickly looked back-and-forwards between him and Delilah. "Oh my God, she's your mother. Ash, I'm really sorry about this! Mrs. Ketchum, will you forgive me?"

"Of course," Delilah said easily. "Obviously your Ditto liked me a lot!" _To not mention that he imitated me perfectly!_, she thought, remembering the humanoid form that Xerox assumed...

_That's an understatement,_ Ash thought to himself. _What did Xerox think Mom was to_ _kiss_ _her like that?!_

"He must like you," Duplica said, blushing a little under her stage make-up. "When Dittos rub each other's faces and kiss like that it's" She swallowed and grinned lamely. "It is a precursor to mating."

Duplica couldn't understand why Misty and Ash's mother were both rendered speechless, and she would remember the look of dumbfounded shock on Ash's face for the rest of her life.

== == == ==

In New York, a top-secret meeting was in progress. A black-haired man has just explained his plan to a special committee that reported directly to the United Nations Security Council.

"I want to make my distaste for these methods completely clear," the committee chairman announced. "General, you are proposing _kidnapping_ and _enslaving_ a woman and her child, a crime forbidden by international law for over a century now."

"Doctor Kelly," the general replied smoothly. "I am not proposing violating any _human_ rights. Neither the adult nor its' offspring are human in the most literal sense of the word. They are more closely allied to the Pokémon, both genetically and biologically. Since it is legal for the military to own Pokémon and deploy them as tactical assets, there is no _legal_ reason why I cannot do the same with Omega and its' offspring."

There was some uncomfortable shuffling of papers as the committee absorbed this. "I see that you've thought this through, General," the chairman grated angrily.

"General, this strategy of yours seems dangerously elaborate," another committee member, a European woman, remarked. "Would it not be simpler and safer simply to attack and capture them directly?"

The General smiled humourlessly. "Ms. DuPont, I can guarantee that a direct assault would result in the eradication of any force deployed against Omega," he said. "It _is_ powerful enough to defeat any conventional weapon used against it and could wipe out an _entire_ army with ease. No, this strategy makes use of its' only weakness: Its' instinctive need to protect its' offspring."

There were some thoughtful mutterings in response to that. After a while, the committee voted by a narrow majority to pass the General's recommendation to the full Security Council.

As he left the secured meeting hall, Dr. Kelly grabbed the General. "You are taking an awful risk with this, General," he said quietly. "This had better of work."

The general smiled. "Have I _ever_ let you down, Doctor?" he asked. "Come to our headquarters in a couple of months and see our latest acquisition in action. That will settle any doubts you may have."

Three days later, the general was in his office in Veridian City when he received word that the Security Council had approved of his plan.

== == == == ==

Two days later, Misty Williams was changing from the black swimsuit she wore to face challengers for the Cascade Badge into her street clothes. She was setting out for Celadon City, where Erika Valerian, the leader of the city's Rainbow Gym was going to show her a cream that she developed to cure skin rashes that afflicted oceanic water-types if they spent too long in fresh water.

The Trainer went into the bathroom and she opened the cabinet, to get her toothbrush. When she closed the door, she saw someone in the mirror, standing right behind her. _Herself_.

Before Misty could react, her double grabbed her over the mouth and pressed a hypospray to her jugular vein. There was a pneumatic hiss and a powerful sedative knocked Misty out before she could even process what was happening to her. The False Misty carried the unconscious girl to her bed and lay her on it. She smiled. "Phase A concluded. Pleasant dreams, kid."

The impostor pulled on a gas mask, pulled out a remote control and pressed the button on it. Tanks of knockout gas that her colleagues had attached to the air conditioning system opened. In seconds, Lilly, Daisy and all the Gym's Pokémon were unconscious. They would be for at least a day, which was long enough for her purposes.

The impostor walked to the window and used a hand-held laser to summon the rest of her team. In minutes, Misty was in a military ambulance, on the way to a UNDF base where she would stay until the mission was complete.

"Now it time for Phase B," the impostor announced in the eerie silence that filled the Cascade Gym. She activated the videophone and called Professor Samuel Oak's Laboratory, in Pallet Town.

== == == == ==

The following day, Ash and Pikachu were waiting for Misty in an isolated part of Cousteau Park. Ash was very concerned. Although the resolution of the picture was very poor, Misty had clearly been very nervous when she called him yesterday. She had begged him to come and meet her as soon as possible. It was about something that she had accidentally found in her sister Daisy's medicine cabinet...

"Ash!" called a familiar voice.

Ash and Pikachu turned to see Misty running in their direction. Ash was shocked when he saw her face. She had obviously been crying a long time.

"Misty! What's happening?" Ash asked, concerned.

"Ash, I had to talk to someone," Misty said. "God knows that I can't ask _Lilly_! Let's go over there." Misty indicated a bench with her head. There was something wrong about this, Ash noted. Something not right about Misty, but he couldn't put his finger on what. They sat down together and Misty told him about how she found a supply of antidepressants in Daisy's medicine cabinet. That kind were usually only prescribed to those at risk of suicide.

"My God!"

"Yeah... I don't know what to do!" Misty covered her face again and began to sob, coincidentally preventing Ash from seeing her face too closely.

"But, are you sure she's taking these things?" Ash asked.

"Sure! Let me show you something!" Misty opened her bag. She pulled out a spray can.

"But Misty, isn't that?" Ash didn't get to finish his sentence. Misty sprayed the blinding CQ riot-control gas into Ash's eyes, blinding and paralysing him instantly. She turned and did the same to Pikachu before the little Pokémon could react. Two men jumped from the bushes and grabbed Ash, fastening restraints to his wrists and ankles.

"Misty," Ash groaned around the pain. "What are you doing?"

"Oh dear, did I forget to tell you that I _wasn't_ Misty?" the impostor said brightly. She watched as the men administered a sleep drug to her prisoner, knocking him unconscious. "Phase B completed," she said in a satisfied tone of voice. Then she turned to the stunned and immobilised Pikachu. "When you have recovered, Pokémon, give this to Omega." She threw a DVD over to Pikachu. She climbed aboard a waiting jet-copter as her colleagues dragged the unconscious Ash in after them. With a roar of turbines, the aircraft took off and flew away.

== == == == ==

It was late at night, when Pikachu finally arrived at Pallet Town. When he told Delilah that somebody had kidnapped Ash, and possibly Misty too, she demanded that the DVD be played_ immediately_. Actually, the disk just contained a .MP3 sound file. The voice was obviously digitally masked, and told the listeners nothing about the speaker.

_"Mrs. Delilah Ketchum, formerly Delia Darkholme, also known as Agent Omega of Team Rocket. By now you will be aware that your son has been arrested by soldiers of the UN Defense Forces on charges of collaborating with an enemy of the human race and abetting a felon in evading justice. He is currently being held at the UNDF facility at Tangelo Island, where he will remain until midnight Friday. If you do not surrender yourself to the UNDF before that time, he will be moved to an undisclosed UN prison facility where he will spend the rest of his natural life. Please think very carefully about what is important to you before you react to this. I look forward to seeing you on Friday."_

There was a long, long pause, before Delilah picked up the portable DVD player and crushed it into shrapnel with one hand. "Er Delilah," Professor Oak began. He immediately took a step back when he saw Delilah's eyes glowing bright green. When she spoke, there was _nothing_ human in her voice at all.

"So...the UNDF wants _me_." The woman smiled emotionlessly. "As they have gone to such lengths to arrange an introduction, it would be churlish of me _not to appear_."

"Delilah... please don't do anything... rash," Oak begged.

Delilah no, _Omega_ looked at her oldest friend in a fashion devoid of emotion or recognition. "Please don't try to stop me, Sam," she said calmly. There was something about her posture, her expression and the glow coming from her eyes. She seemed almost _demonic_. Before Oak and Tracey's astonished eyes, a transformation began.

Delilah's outer layers transformed into an insectoid exoskeleton that gleamed like a rock-type's tough hide. The armour-like exoskeleton flowed over Delilah's head, forming a covering like a knight's helmet, so that only her long red hair and her glowing green eyes were still visible. Her arms thickened and her hands, in claw-like form, are also cloaked in exoskeletal armour with cruel jagged spikes sprouting from the knuckle guards. Powerful wings like those of a Dragonite sprouted from her back.

The dominant colour of this new form was a shining glossy black, broken only by the red of her hair and a gleaming golden emblem at her waist that looked like a belt buckle, but was the Greek letter Omega.

Omega looked at Sam Oak one more time and the old researcher felt a deeper, colder terror than he had ever felt before. "Goodbye," she said calmly. She raised her clawed arms and red-gold earth energy flared around them. A massive double Hyper-beam attack blew a hole in the roof of the Research Center. As Oak and Tracey jumped back to dodge the falling concrete, Omega launched herself out of the hole and into the skies.

Oak staggered outside just in time to see a dot vanishing in the skies to the northeast, a sonic boom still echoing over Pallet Town. "Oh no," Oak said quietly.

"Professor, what do we do?" Tracey asked.

Oak looked at his assistant in a puzzled way. "_Do?_" he asked. "My dear Tracey, it has _finally happened_. The day that I have lived in terror of seeing for the last fourteen years, ever since I found what I thought to be an incredible new kind of Pokémon fallen and unconscious in my laboratories. They have finally done it, my young friend. They have finally caused my friend Delilah enough pain to _kill_ the small amount of humanity that she had left in her heart. They have unleashed a wrath that will _never be satisfied_, a rage that would _terrify the Devil himself._"

Oak turned back to the northeast, his face was pale and tears were streaming from his eyes. "What we will do, Tracey, is start praying. Pray that God may have mercy on all our souls... _because Omega will have none._"

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	10. The Polymorphic Demon

The Omega Mutation - chapter 10

_The Omega Mutation__  
__by Joshua Falken_

_Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter and for his help in the battle scenes, in special the Battle of Tangelo Island_

_**Chapter 10 - The Polymorphic Demon**_

It was a few minutes since a jet-black figure had flown over the Cascade Gym in Cerulean City. Although it was the darkest hour of the night, Officer Jenny Murdoch of the Security Police began to hammer on the closed main entrance of the gym. Everybody in Cerulean City knew how nervous Jenny always was, but the way that she hammered on the door would have surprised even the most cynical of the people who knew her. She seemed ready to knock the door of its' hinges from the way she was pounding on it!

The policewoman's eyes abruptly shone with green light and, without any warning she kicked the entrance door violently, smashing it inwards and nearly tearing it from its' frame. She entered the reception area and looked around, unhindered by the pitch darkness of the night. She saw Lilly immediately. The second youngest Williams sister was sleeping at the reception table, her arms resting on the table as if she had suddenly dropped into sleep while she was doing something else.

"Officer Jenny's" expression did not alter one micron as she touched Lilly's neck, feeling for a pulse. While the girl was alive, the woman's other senses confirmed that she had been heavily sedated. Without bothering to waken Lilly, the woman turned away. As she did so, her figure blurred into blue gel-like fluid. Her uniform turned into a black blouse and a knee-length black skirt. Her hair grew longer and changed from a grey-black, almost blue colour to flame red. Delilah Ketchum _Omega_ immediately began to examine the gym thoroughly for clues to what had happened to her missing son Ash.

Delilah decided that it was like a scene from Sleeping Beauty, her favourite fairy tale as a child. All the staff of the Gym had dropped in their tracks as if by magic. She paused and sniffed. She immediately identified traces of DQ tranquillising gas in the air. Someone had decided that they wanted these people uncommunicable for a few days. Even the Pokémon were asleep.

If Omega had ever believed that Misty Williams had been involved, she discarded the thought when she found Misty's Togepi asleep on her little bed in the girl's private rooms. In all the years that Delilah had known Misty, she had never abandoned the little baby Pokémon for one second. Delilah sighed and put her head in her hands, trying to think clearly.

Delilah decided that she already knew what had happened. Major General Kent Williams, Misty's father, was also the commander of the United Nations Defense Forces in the Kanto region. It was clear that he had discovered her secret. The man obviously had no scruples when it came to involving his family in his work. Although Delilah didn't know the actual details, it was clear that he had kidnapped Misty and either coerced her to trap Ash or found a double that he could use in the same way.

"Who Who are you?" a woman's weak voice asked. A _very_ disoriented Daisy had woken up.

Omega didn't give Daisy any time to get a look at her face. Acting on pure fighting instinct, heightened by her fear for Ash, she whirled and kicked Daisy in the face, knocking the Cascade Gym Leader out cold.

Deciding that the Gym could offer her no more useful information about Ash's kidnap, Omega strode out into the street. She immediately transformed into her 'battle' form, covered with exoskeletal armour. Dragonite's wings spread from her back and the mutant woman launched herself into the sky. A double 'boom' echoed across Cerulean City as Omega broke the sound barrier, heading south for the Orange Archipelago and Tangelo Island.

=========

Delilah Ketchum, or better, _Omega_, dropped below the speed of sound about thirty miles due north of Fort Schwartzkopf, the UNDF's base, on Tangelo Island. As soon as she came within ten miles, she could sense the radar and other detection apparatus on the base reach out and touch her. She briefly considered using the abilities that she had acquired from the Magnemite evolutionary chain to mask her approach, but decided against it. _Let them know I am coming,_ Omega thought to herself with a dangerous smirk. _Fear at my mode of arrival can only serve my purposes_.

Omega dropped vertically out of the sky into the middle of the parade square of the base. UNDF troopers scattered in every direction as they saw the creature with chitinous black armour and graceful wings land in the middle of their base. She looked around at the ill disciplined... _flatscans_ as they ran around in confusion. She waited until someone restored some order to the area and the completely futile attempts to either injure or kill her with positively stone-aged projectile weapons ended. Finally, an armed and armoured officer wearing the insignia of a Lieutenant in the UNDF edged towards her, pointing his Beretta P92 service pistol at her head. Six soldiers, all pointing their Eradicator rifles at the strange invader backed up the terrified officer.

Omega absorbed her wings back into her body. The graceful flow of her liquid-based body as she absorbed the now-unnecessary wings made the 'brave' soldiers jump back in terror. The part of the mutant woman that was Delilah Ketchum had to smile at the results she was achieving without even trying. Omega drew in a breath and spoke in a voice that made glass rattle in their windowpanes. "I am Omega!" she boomed. "I am here for Ash Ketchum! Take me to him _now!_"

The young lieutenant thought furiously for a few seconds, but couldn't find anything to say other than: "This way uh Ma'am"

Within minutes, the mutant woman was taken to one of the base's administration blocks. Inside an office, there was a bald-headed UNDF Ground Forces officer: Major Gerald Nance according to his nametag. Nance stood and looked at Omega uncertainly, taking in the biological armour and the deadly claws on the end of her hands. "I am glad to see that you decided to be reasonable, Agent Omega." he said.

Omega declined even to acknowledge the man's visible sense of triumph. "Where is Ash Ketchum?" she asked in a bored tone of voice.

"He is safe," Nance said. He watched as the two UNDF soldiers who had escorted Omega to his office snapped handcuffs to her wrists.

"Unlikely," Omega replied. She looked around the office. It was obvious that this was not Nance's office. There were some pictures of another officer and companions decorating the walls and certificates of merit, all for someone else, hung over the desk. "Major, I assure you that you have no conception of the _threat_ you are facing. I strongly advise you to surrender my son and his companion to me. If you do not do this within thirty seconds, _I will destroy your base piece-by-piece._"

Nance sneered slightly as the two troopers levelled their rifles at Omega's head. He pulled out a walkie-talkie and pressed a button on it. Six more troops ran in and the room became positively filled with armour and firepower. "Now," he said. "Tell me, you freak. Do you expect me to believe that you can escape your bindings, beat eight of my best troops and escape this office to go on a rampage in just _thirty seconds?_"

She looked at Nance levelly. "No," she replied. "It is only fifteen seconds now."

Nance began to sweat and Omega noted that his legs seemed to have lost some of their strength. "I I assure you that is not in your best interests," Nance said, grinning humourlessly. "If you want to see your son again"

Omega shook her head. "Major, you are in no position to threaten _me_," she said. "I, on the other hand, am definitely in a position to threaten _you_. However, the time for such things is _over._ Your time is up. _You lose._" There was a flash of blue-white light and Omega teleported out of the office.

"What the _Get her!_" Nance shouted. At that moment, the entire office seemed to disintegrate around Nance and his eight soldiers. As the nine UNDF personnel looked on in utter disbelief, Omega lifted the entire administration block into the air and launched it across the base as if it were a bit of balled-up wastepaper. The block smashed into a garage building and both buildings collapsed like a stack of card. "My God this can't be happening" Nance blurted.

Omega waited until the last of the Motor Pool staff had fled the garage before pointing her left arm at it and discharging a Hyper Beam attack into the building. The fuel tanks of several dozen vehicles exploded simultaneously, sending a massive mushroom-shaped fireball up into the sky above the base. Delilah re-created her wings and launched herself into the air.

"Big Dog to Hounds," Nance shouted into his walkie-talkie. "The Fox is loose! I say again: The Fox is loose!"

Immediately, every doorway and every window sprouted the muzzles of guns. The doors of several hanger buildings swung open and HMMVR vehicles with TOW missile racks and Okerleon 20mm cannon raced out into the open. Several RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopters rose out of cover, their Hellfire and Stinger missiles seeking a target. It was a well-planned ambush. Omega decided that it would be good to have... _a workout_...

She dropped back to the ground and used an Earthquake attack; one thousands of times more powerful than that available to even the largest rock-type. The base's buildings began to rock and the ground vehicles racing to form a circle of guns around Omega started swerving as their drivers fought for control.

Omega turned slightly and unleashed a Thunder-Shock attack that engulfed the nearest building. She heard the screams as the electric charge tore into every soldier hiding within. Several guns dropped out of windows and doorways. The first gunfire began to reach out towards Omega. She wasn't really in danger from the solid projectiles, but it was likely that the fools would injure each other in the crossfire. There was still enough of Delilah Ketchum in her to want to avoid that. She swivelled on one foot and Used Metronome. The Earth-energy force field caught every bullet and sent them bouncing around randomly. The flying energy then smashed every window and cracked several walls.

A TOW anti-tank missile shot towards Omega, who didn't even blink. She jumped over the sub-sonic weapon as it raced in and grabbed the thin control/guidance cables that attached it to the launcher on the back of a HMMVR. Omega looped the cables around her hand and yanked once, ripping the launcher off of the back of its' carrier vehicle. Using the launcher as an ad-hoc flail, she began to spin it around her head and smash it into the windshields of the attacking vehicles. Several vehicles crashed and began to burn.

Twenty-millimetre HE bullets began to strike Omega in the back. She softened her body and let the bullets penetrate right through her. She turned and jumped onto the bonnet of the HMMVR jeep behind her and bent the twin barrels of the AAA gun double. She then ripped open the top of the vehicle and pulled out the two troopers within, tossing them aside. Taking the wheel, she steered the jeep right into another and jumped clear as the two armoured vehicles reduced each other to scrap.

Tiring of the ground battle, Omega rose gracefully into the air. The four Comanches raced forward, their cannon turrets spitting bullets. The lead Comanche fired two Stinger AAMs at the flying mutant. Omega briefly considered dodging the missiles, but decided that she could use them more profitably. Moving slowly, so as not to avoid the gaze of their heat-seeking sensors, she looped over the charging helicopters and paused briefly behind them before teleporting away. The Stingers bore in blindly towards the only heat source they could still detect, the rear two helicopters. All though the missiles could not destroy the two helicopters, it did seriously damage them and force them to land.

"The bitch got Three and Four," the lead Comanche pilot snarled to his wingman. "_Where the hell has she gone?_"

That question was answered dramatically when a Scyther's claw suddenly punched through the floor of the cockpit. Omega cut off the front of the hundred-million-dollar aircraft as if it were a can of soup she was opening to make Ash a dinner. She grabbed the terrified pilot and threw him to the ground. She then turned and threw it into the single survivor. There was a massive explosion and both helicopters were destroyed.

On the ground, the surviving HMMVRs equipped with Okerleon guns had lined up and were trying to shoot Omega down. The mutant woman turned slightly and unleashed a Supersonic attack that blew every vehicle on the side and exploded the eardrums of every unfortunate trooper in the attack's cone of effect. The buildings in the cone of effect collapsed, already weakened by her earlier Earthquake attack. Delilah's super-enhanced hearing heard several soldiers scream as the buildings collapsed around them.

Tiring of the prolonged battle, Omega drew in on her reserves of power and unleashed the most powerful Thunder attack ever recorded. Every trooper outside of a building was electrocuted unconscious and every vehicle in the base had its' ignition and electrical system fused solid.

A few guns still fired from the backs of some HMMVRs. Delilah dropped down and used her strength to smash those weapons. A few soldiers tried to tackle her, but a sudden hail of razor leaves and a judicious use of Terror sent them fleeing for their lives.

Several rifles fired from a window near Omega. She turned towards the attack and raised an arm. She fired off a single hyper-beam that demolished the building, entombing those foolish enough to _dare_ to fight her. Realising that more soldiers must be hidden in the buildings, and that Ash might possibly be inside one too, Delilah decided that she _must_ use less... _dramatic_ methods.

Strengthening her exoskeleton and honing the claws on all four of her arms to razor sharpness, she ducked into the nearest standing barracks block... and began_ to hunt_.

The first victims were a pair of infantrymen who ducked out of a side office to see what the hell was going on. Omega didn't even pause. She lashed out with Poison Dart and sent them both into unconsciousness. She looked into a nearby door and saw a soldier diving for cover. She blew him against the filing cabinets with an almost-dismissive Water Gun attack and moved on. Inside the second office, from which the first two soldiers had emerged, an officer was just getting into cover behind his desk. He got a Poison Dart in the back and fell unconscious.

At the end of the corridor, a single soldier was firing his rifle at Omega as she marched towards him. Seeing that the .22"-calibre bullets from his rifle were having no effect, he dived into cover. Omega tracked his likely arc of motion and fired a Hyper Beam at the appropriate bit of wall. The blast smashed through the wall and blew the soldier against the far wall with a crunch of shattering ribs.

==========

_"Sir, she's gone into the Barracks blocks,"_ a terrified voice reported.

Nance looked around at the ruins of his carefully planned ambush and seemed a bit crestfallen. It had taken that _freak_ just two-and-a-half minutes to reduce thirty HMMVR jeeps and four attack helicopters to about a hundred dollars of scrap metal. About two hundred soldiers were either trapped under fallen buildings, unconscious from some kind of assault or dead. He raised his walkie-talkie.

"Issue heavy weapons," he commanded. "Grenade launchers, heavy rockets, _anything_! Just _bring that bitch down!_"

===========

Within the main utility room of the Barracks section of the base, Omega calmly ripped a 25,000-volt cable out of its' mounting as 12-guage shotgun and .22"-calibre rifle bullets slammed uselessly through her liquid body. Without changing expression, she stuck the cable into the main fuse-box and all the lights in the barracks quadrant _exploded_.

=========

"Holy shit," Nance's number two remarked as he pulled an M-79 grenade launcher from the main armoury. "_What_ is that _thing_, Major?"

"She's a terrorist, Captain," Nance replied. "That's all you need to know. Now let's get moving."

=========

Omega was now prowling through the darkened buildings, systematically pacifying every room in on the base one-by-one. She would kick the door down and then use either electric- or psychic-type attacks to neutralise the soldiers within. If the door was locked, she would blow it off its' hinges with a single well-placed Mega-Punch attack. Where the enemy was close enough, a Slash attack or a Venom Claw attack sufficed.

She reached what looked like an office area with several cubicles and a lot of open space. It was almost painfully predictable when every cubicle and doorway sprouted a soldier who began firing at her. _At last, they begin to learn,_ Omega thought in grudging admiration. They were now all using High Explosive ammunition and that had raised the effect of their bullets from 'inconsequential' to 'inconvenient.' Omega extended her arms and launched a Thunder-shock that rendered all but one unconscious. He stood up again and began to fire his shotgun at her. She staggered from the power of the impact. Sensing a medal-winning victory, the soldier racked the reload slide on his shotgun and fired again. The shot went wide, smashing a window next to where Omega was standing. She simply looked at the man. Before he could reload again, a Kinesis attack lifted him from his feet and threw him against the back wall with bone-crushing force.

Omega passed through a burning part of the building, stepping over several unconscious or semi-conscious soldiers. Those who could were groaning in pain, but Omega had no time for them. She was systematically scanning the buildings for any sign of Ash and Misty.

As she walked down a corridor, a soldier stepped out of a doorway and began to fire his Eradicator rifle at her. Omega didn't even blink. She simply knocked him down with Poison Dart. Suddenly something lower-velocity struck her in the back. There was a massive explosion and Omega seemed to disappear.

Major Nance's second-in-command stepped out of a doorway and casually reloaded his M-79. Had he destroyed the enemy? In the darkened corridors, the smoke from the detonation of the 40mm grenade made it impossible to see anything. Suddenly, something slashed through the air, something that looked like a sword, which cut the M-79 in half. The smoke cleared and the Captain saw Omega close-up for the first time, her eyes burning with a green light as her right hand changed from a Scizor's claw back to a clawed humanoid hand.

"Goodbye," Omega said and used Mega-Punch to dispatch the young man into unconsciousness. Another soldier jumped out carrying a MINIMI machinegun and began to fire. Delilah fired a Hyper Beam from her left hand and a Thunderbolt from her left hand and launched the soldier down the length of the corridor.

Omega paused and listened carefully, filtering through the sounds her genetically enhanced hearing could detect. There was the crackle of fast-spreading fires, the blare of alarms in distant parts of the base and the pain-filled groans of still-conscious UNDF soldiers. Apart from that, there was no other sound _No_ what was that?

==========

An Onyx exploded from the centre of the parade ground and morphed mid-air into Omega's battle shape. As she rose into the air on Dragonite's wings, Delilah saw four massive machines lumber into the square on triple-jointed legs. The machines had massive missile batteries and huge gun emplacements filled their 'arms.'

_Battlemechs?_ Delilah thought in surprise, recognising the machines immediately. _I thought they were just things made up for that computer game Ash loves so much! Well, they won't _last_ very long._ Omega landed in the very centre of the square and watched as the four Mechs, she recognised them as 'Persuader' heavy assault Mechs, lumber to a halt, one ahead, one behind and one to each side. "Let's have your best, gentlemen," Omega called out loudly.

_"Agent Omega,"_ boomed an amplified voice from the Persuader on her left. _"If you do not surrender immediately, we are authorised to use whatever force necessary to restrain you. This includes lethal force."_

The mutant woman raised her eyebrows underneath her head armour, amused by the Mech Commander's incredible arrogance. _What have those other soldiers been using then,_ she asked herself, _feather dusters?_ "Be my guest," she replied aloud, bracing herself for the attack that she knew was coming.

Simultaneously, twelve 60MW Clan Pulse Lasers, four Lightning Guns and four Heavy Flamers fired. Omega disappeared in a massive fireball, which mounted up even further as nearly 100 Slammer anti-tank missiles shot out of the Persuaders' missile launchers and into the conflagration.

For a long moment, there was silence. Suddenly, a blazing figure emerged from the pyre in the centre of the parade ground. It quickly resolved itself into the figure of Omega, who shot up to the lead Persuader. Her hands morphed into a Kingler's claws and she used Crab Hammer to smash open the armoured canopy. She then reached in, pulled the pilot out of his chair, and threw him to the ground.

_"Fire!"_ ordered a Mech pilot. The Persuaders' Laser Cannon fired again, followed a second later by the Lightning Guns. However, Omega assembled an Aurora Shield, which deflected the energy-based attacks easily. She dropped agilely to the ground, grabbed the pilot-less Mech by one foot and lifted it into the air as if it were a child's toy. She threw the Battlemech into the one on the opposite side of the parade ground, knocking both down and disabling her target. Then, she rose into the air on Scyther's wings.

Omega hovered in between the two surviving Mechs and looked right into the eyes of one of the pilots. She used Terror to force the pilot to do something he would normally never do and fire when one of his colleagues was in the line of fire. The hail of energy, laser and missile strikes made the other Persuader shudder. Omega saw the blue-white electricity crackling across its' body shell and launched herself as high and as fast as she could. Both surviving pilots ejected before the damaged Mech's miniaturised nuclear power core exploded, destroying both machines.

Omega hovered over the burning wreckage and laughed at the ease of her victory. She drew on her reserves of power again, intending to finish the battle _now_. A massive Ultimate Metronome attack smashed the roof from every building on the base and collapsed the more fragile buildings in on themselves. All hint of resistance had ceased and an eerie silence descended on the ruins of Fort Schwartzkopf.

Delilah, a little proud and more than a little amazed by the damage she had just caused, scanned with her full range of senses and decided that Ash truly was _not_ here.

However, there was one familiar scent here. Major Nance was in that HMMVR racing away from the smouldering ruins.

=========

Nance was terrified. He was no coward, but the training he received at West Point and Sandhurst didn't prepare him for fighting a creature that wasn't even _human_ but was instead some kind of _living weapon!_

Suddenly, the jeep lurched to a halt. "Damn it, man, have you fallen asleep or something?" Nance asked his driver. Both men listened for a moment to the howl of the vehicle's diesel engines for a moment before they both came to the same realisation. They looked in the rear view mirror and saw Omega casually holding the HMMVR's rear bumper, holding the armoured jeep immobile without any visible effort. The driver grabbed his Uzi sub-machinegun and jumped out of his door. Omega was standing there, smiling warmly. There was a flash of light and a razor-sharp Scyther's claw slashed through cloth, Kevlar and flesh with equal ease, nearly cutting the man in half.

Nance ran as fast as he could, when suddenly a net dropped over him. The man tried to struggle, but the net was made of incredibly strong material and seemed to be covered with some kind of adhesive. The more that he struggled, the more that he became hopelessly ensnared.

Suddenly two feet dropped into his field of vision. Two feet enclosed in insect-like exoskeletal armour and tipped with claws. Nance looked up into Omega's glowing green eyes and swallowed a scream of terror. "Now," Omega said in a quiet and reasonable tone of voice. "Where is my son?"

"I'll never talk!" Nance shouted.

Omega rolled her eyes and grabbed the man, dragging him off the ground. She extruded an arm based on that of a Sandslash and curved the vicious venom-laced claws across his fleshy red face. "Now, now, darling," she laughed. "Let's not be too hasty, hmm? I still haven't decided what revenge I'll take on you for your part in this. Tell me, what do you think I should do? A tooth for a tooth?" Omega pulled up the man's upper lip and ran her claw across his upper front teeth. "Or maybe an eye for an eye?" Omega traced around the edge of the man's right eyeball, making him whimper in terror.

She liberally used Terror and Confusion to increase the man's disorientation. When that didn't work, she began to tighten her grip on his arms until it reached bone-crushing force. "He isn't here!" Nance screamed. "I don't know where we are keeping him! This was just a trap to capture _you_. The General knew that you would fight and didn't want the prisoners anywhere near you!"

Omega glared at the man. She genuinely considered killing him for a second before using Hypnosis to knock him out.

She turned away from the unconscious major and started to think hard. _I'm a stupid fool!_ Delilah thought to herself. _They would never have let Ash be so easy to find! What I do now?_

The inner voice of Omega answered: _They never will give your son back. He is their prize. The only way that you could make them willingly tell you where they have hidden him is when they are on their knees before you_ Begging for mercy! 

Delilah silently considered that. She looked towards the next island in the Orange Archipelago: Mandarin Island. Her eyes narrowed. "Let's do it!" she said firmly. Then Omega, the demon of vengeance and destruction, launched herself towards her next target...

============

Brigadier General Alex McNamara, of the Mandarin Island UNDF Base, didn't know what to do. First, he had received orders to ignore any communications or strange happenings coming from Tangelo Island base and transfer his treasured Battlemechs there. Then, through his binoculars, he saw that _something_ was happening there and definitely was _not_ something good.

McNamara lowered his binoculars and decided to contact the regional headquarters on Pumello Island and let them know what was happening. At that moment, his second-in-command ran into the Command Center.

"General, something is coming! It is only the size of a person, but it is travelling at over 2,000 miles an hour. What...?"

The captain could not finish his sentence. A Supersonic Attack had exploded every window, skylight and monitor screen in the base. While he tried to recover and to stop the flow of blood from his ears, Alex McNamara saw an image that would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life. _A demon_ had just flown into the control room! The creature seemed to be a woman, protected by a kind of black armour, with the wings of a Scyther.

Before he could think in something, the creature stretched out an arm in his direction and struck him down with a Thunder Shock, making him fall unconscious...

==========

Somewhere, a woman slept, unaware of the destruction that was happening in the Orange Archipelago. The insistent ringing of her telephone awakened her. "Who is it?" she asked in a tired, disoriented tone of voice. The voice she heard and the face that appeared on the monitor made her wake up far faster than she could ever have thought possible.

"Hello, Madeleine." A man in the shadows greeted her, as he stroked his elegant Persian's head. The tone of his voice would seem friendly to most, but the woman knew the darkness that hid under that pleasant exterior. She knew that all too well. 

"_Giovanni?_ Why are you telephoning me?"

"Because you were not completely honest with us about the last project you undertook for Team Rocket."

"What do you mean?"

"You assured my mother, 15 years ago, that Omega would not survive if she escaped from us. You told us that she would die, probably within a month, if she did not receive your special serum. Assuming that you really believed that was true, how do you explain _this?_" The image switched to a satellite video view. A being protected by an organic-looking black armour used a Kinesis Attack to throw a Battlemech on a group of assault jeeps. The caption on the image told the watcher that this was a live image of what was happening at the UNDF base on Trovita Island. As the woman watched, the being transformed its' body into a facsimile of a Tauros and began to knock armoured vehicles over with a series of furious charges.

A chill ran down the woman's spine. She couldn't _believe_ what she was seeing! "This is_ impossible! She can't be alive!_"

"But she is, as our colleagues of the UNDF would be only too glad to testify." Giovanni's voice was icily smooth now. He made no effort to hide the scorn he felt for the petty sadist who he was addressing, the woman who had once been Team Rocket's foremost research geneticist. "I will be awaiting your return to Black Island within the next 5 hours."

"But... I am not part of Team Rocket anymore!"

Giovanni laughed. "My dear Madeleine, you are Team Rocket body and soul. You proved that when you so ably managed the Greek Alphabet Program on my mother's behalf, mutilating countless innocents to create the ultimate weapon. Of course if you prefer not to return to your lab... the entire Kanto Region will know about your past as Team Rocket's answer to Dr. Frankenstein."

She swallowed dryly before that threat. It would ruin her entire career! Worse, she would spend the rest of her life in prison!

The terrorist leader didn't give the woman time to formulate an answer. "Remember: you have just five hours." There was a long pause before Giovanni continued, in a more thoughtful tone of voice. "I think that you should be proud of your creation my dear Madeleine. My intelligence analysts tell me that it will only take Omega, if she stays at this pace, two weeks to _eradicate_ the UNDF completely. After that, I have no doubt she will start attacking civilian targets, like Viridian City or Goldenrod City. Since she can't be stopped, after all you created her to be that way, you can go to your grave knowing that you are personally and solely responsible for _the extinction of the human race._" Giovanni hung up. 

In the silence of her bedroom, the surprise and consternation of Professor Madeleine Ivy became a mortal mixture of hate and fear for the being that she had seen on the screen. She remembered each punishment that she had suffered after its had so impossibly escaped, and she felt mortal terror as she found herself thinking of the fury that must exist inside her finest and most powerful creation Omega.

===========

Major General Mercedes Sakura Heisenberg, the commander of Pumello Island's UNDF base and the commander for the Orange Archipelago, felt as if she were living inside a nightmare. For the two hours, she had listened as eleven UNDF facilities issued a mayday call, reporting that some kind of... _monster_ or _demon_ was attacking them. One by one, those bases had fallen silent and had not responded to any communication since. Now her _own_ base was being attacked.

"General, Pumello City has been completely evacuated!"

The blond woman watched Omega transform into a Stellix and destroy several hangars with one furious charge. She turned back to her executive officer. "Evacuate the base! I am not going put my troops up against that _thing!_ Not unless the General Secretary authorises the use of nuclear weapons!" She knew that her troops stood no chance against _whatever it was_ using only conventional projectile and laser weapons.

At that moment, a squadron of F-45C Fury attack fighters dived towards Omega and fired off a hail of Hammer air-to-surface missiles. Omega didn't seem to react, but an Aurora Shield materialised and the missiles detonated uselessly against it. Omega turned to face the aircraft and teleported away.

The squadron leader was stunned by the sudden disappearance of his target. Then a wall of psychic energy flashed over all twelve aircraft. Suddenly _knowing_ what was going to happen, the pilots ejected just as their aircraft exploded into a spray of fire and shrapnel.

Omega laughed as she watched the result of her Future Vision attack. She hovered in mid-air with no visible means of support and reached out with her enhanced senses. She noticed that there was a full-scale evacuation underway, clearing the base of troops. "Could it be that they have_ finally _noticed _what_ they are facing?" she asked herself with a vicious smile.

Then she saw a blond woman in a UNDF General uniform jump into a jeep and drive off.

A few minutes later, General Heisenberg's jeep was travelling through the eerily deserted Pumello City. Just as it passed in front of the Orange League's Hall of Fame, it suddenly stopped and it rose into the air. Heisenberg looked into the rear view mirror, and saw Omega, who was raising the car with the powers of a Magneton. Then, with a dismissive gesture, Omega threw the vehicle inside of the Orange League building.

Mercedes Heisenberg crawled out of her written-off car, lip and nose bleeding. She touched her side and groaned, feeling the pain of a few broken ribs.

"Leaving so early?" A voice of a woman, completely inhuman, asked. "We haven't even had the chance to get to know each other!" There was an edge of insanity and sadism in that voice. It paralysed Heisenberg with utter terror for a long moment.

Finally, the General looked back. Omega, resplendent in her shining black armour, was standing in the door in a strangely seductive pose. The officer grabbed her service pistol and shot several times at the mutant woman, who walked in her direction seemingly not even inconvenienced by the shots. Then Omega transformed her right arm in the blade of a Scyther and cut the weapon in two. Before the woman could recover of the fright, Omega grabbed her in her vine whips and threw her hard against the wall.

The whole world turned into a flash of pain. When Heisenberg could see again, she was tangled up in a Spinarak's Web Net. Omega smiled evilly and walked over, lengthening and honing the fingers of her right hand until they were 30cm-long razor-sharp blades. "You seem like an intelligent woman," Omega said in a curiously friendly tone of voice. "Maybe you can help me. I like to consider myself a student of the sciences, biology especially, and I was wondering something: How much _pain_ can a human woman take before she either dies or goes completely insane? Maybe we can answer this question together?" Omega began to laugh coldly and Heisenberg began to scream and thrash against her restraints, understanding _very clearly_ what the monster in front of her was planning to do.

Omega laughed scornfully and took a few seconds to re-enforce the adhesive web covering the soldier's body. Then she reached forward and, with a surgeon's precision and care, she cut an inch-square patch of skin off the woman's cheek, enjoying the agonised shrieks that echoed through the room. Then she carefully cut away Heisenberg's uniform and began to slice slowly into the skin on her right shoulder, gently easing it off her victim's flesh. Omega was curious to see if she could get the woman's skin off in one piece without killing her in the process

Then, something got Omega's attention. She was looking at the wall panel behind Heisenberg. It was one of the concrete panels erected for the winners of the Orange League Challenge. Heisenberg was too afraid to move but, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the fin-print of a Lapras and the hoof-print of a Tauros were impressed in the concrete slab.

Omega stepped away from her victim and took a photograph down from the wall. She looked at it, her expression utterly unreadable. Then, she ran a finger gently over the photograph and, with infinite care, returned it to its' place on the wall.

Omega walked over to Mercedes, her head lowered and her expression dominated by gut-wrenching shame. Since terror had completely paralysed the woman, Omega lashed out with a forceful punch. The pain brought the soldier back to reality and Omega spoke in a sibilant tone of voice that matched the snake-like eyes that stared down at Mercedes through a burning green light. "Tell your superiors that they have _twenty-four hours_ to release my son, Ash Ketchum. After that, I will begin to kill systematically _every person on the face of the planet! ONE BY ONE!_" There was a flash of a Teleport and Omega was gone. In the darkened building, Mercedes Heisenberg realised that she was going to live for now and began to laugh and cry hysterically.

Three hours later, Mercedes Heisenberg was found in the slowly disintegrating web by an Emergency Rescue Force team. They were surprised that the woman's first priority was to look at a photograph on the wall behind her. It was a photograph of 2061's Orange League Challenge winner, Ash Ketchum.

===========

Delilah teleported herself to an isolated house close to Goldenrod City in Johto. She had acquired this hideaway a week after Ash had discovered her true nature. She hadn't known at the time if she needed the refuge. However, in retrospect, she was right to be careful. Right now, she needed a place to think.

The mutant woman paced around the empty and unfurnished house. After 'visiting' twelve UN Defence Forces bases, Delilah was convinced that Ash and Misty's kidnappings were not an official mission undertaken by the UNDF. If it was, they would have been prepared for some attack from her Instead, her powers and her attack took them completely by surprise.

Her black-slitted green eyes shone weakly, while she thought. Delilah concentrated, using all her experience as a Team Rocket terrorist to understand what was going on.

_Perhaps the kidnapping was a rogue operation,_ she thought. _It would not be the first time..._

Yes. It made sense: Williams had decided that she would be _his_ secret weapon and his alone. He had kept what he knew about her real identity secret from his colleagues and superiors and had attempted to capture her. The rest of the UNDF command structure was probably entirely in the dark.

If it was a rogue operation, Delilah's only chance of finding Ash was to go directly to the brain behind it: General Kent L. Williams.

===========

Meanwhile, somebody was watching as Team Rocket agent Domino Pfaster used a computer terminal in the organisation's base near Viridian City. After she shut down the terminal, the observer ran through the ventilation system to a room two levels below. There, Jessie, James and Mondo awaited his return.

The observer left the pipe and posed in triumph. "Meowth! I got her password!" Meowth felt smug, and who could blame him!

"What is it?" Jessie demanded. Their attempts of finding something about Project Omega or about Agent Darkholme had not had success: the information was top-secret. Only the highest levels of the organisation had access to that information... people like Domino.

"It is "iromotnemem," Mewoth replied.

"What?" Jessie asked in annoyance. The last thing she needed right now was for the cat to go completely mad on her.

"I-R-O-M-O-T-N-E-M-E-M." the cat-like Pokémon spelled out.

"It is 'Memento Mori' backwards." James commented, surprising his friends. "It's a Latin expression. It means 'Remember that you will die.'"

"Thank you for that useless bit of information, James!" the redhead commented sarcastically. "Now, it is your turn, Mondo!"

Jessie and James's assistant reluctantly tried to invade Team Rocket's computer system again.

==========

The day after Omega's rampage, in a high-security building in downtown Viridian City, four people in the uniforms of UNDF Generals spoke directly to Alexandra Faraday, the General Secretary of the United Nations, by means of a satellite connection. "What in the hell is happening?" the woman demanded of a tall black-haired man sitting at the head of the table.

"Ms. General Secretary... we don't know," confessed Major General Kent Lanning Williams, commander of Vermilion City Base and the regional commander for the Kanto Region. "The _only_ thing that we are sure is that the being that destroyed the facilities in Orange Area, seemingly, has the powers of several types of Pokémon and that it is searching for something."

"But what is it that this... _monster_ wants?"

Williams looked at Mercedes Heisenberg, taking in the pro-skin dressing on her face and the sterile dressing covering her savaged right arm. When she had been brought to his base, Heisenberg had been nearly insane with fear and Williams still didn't know if he could trust what the woman continued to insist happened in the Orange League's Hall of Fame. "We still are not sure, Mrs. Secretary," Williams replied at last.

The 57 year-old woman in the video sighed. "Very well, General. What precautions are you taking?"

An oriental man, General Kenshin Tetsuo Mitsuragi, Willaims counterpart for Johto, replied. "We have placed all our the radars and detection systems on Defcon-1 Alert, as well as all our surviving bases. We also ordered regular patrols in the cities and towns in the region in case this creature were to attack a population centre or strategic target."

"Ms. General Secretary, I believe that would be prudent if we declared a State of Emergency and Martial Law in the Kanto Region." Williams looked furiously at the man that had just spoken. He was Major General Jeffrey Archer Straker, the regional commander of Sector Athena, the UNDF's specialised anti-terrorist arm. Heisenberg and Mitsuragi exchanged glances: they knew that the two men didn't agree on _anything_ from their favourite soccer team to the UN Declaration of Human Rights!

The General Secretary's face indicated that she didn't like the suggestion. "General Straker, you know that a State of Emergency can only be declared in case of a direct attack against the civilian population!" she sighed. "Thank God that this hasn't happened yet. Do what is necessary to stop that monster," Faraday continued, "but I will not tolerate any infringement of the freedoms guaranteed by the Declaration of Rights at this time. Is that clear?" The four generals nodded. "I want to hear it from your lips, Jeff," she continued firmly.

Straker rolled his eyes. "Yes, Ms. General Secretary. Athena Sector will comply with your orders."

After the meeting, General Williams walked out to his staff car, where his driver, Captain Katherine Pryde of the UNDF Space Defense Forces, waited. Normally, being assigned a driver would annoy Williams. He had driven his HMMVR through minefields and massive artillery bombardments, so he didn't need any help on a paved road. However, he was grateful for the courtesy today. He needed the time to think. "Morning, Kitty," he said, using his personal nickname for the short brunette woman. "Viridian City Airport, please."

Captain Pryde nodded, her head lowered. She closed the door behind Williams, got into the driver's seat and started the engine.

Kent Williams rubbed the bridge of his nose. He didn't understand _any_ of this! First, a being that some described as a black-armoured woman and others described as a humanoid Pokémon destroyed several UNDF facilities in the Orange Archipelago. When it/she reached Pumello, it/she went about capturing and menacing Mercedes, giving every indication that it/she (he had to decide how to think of this enemy) was going to torture her to death. Then it stopped, demanded that the UNDF release her son to her and then disappeared!

Now the most frightening fact: Everything indicated that being thought that Ash Ketchum, the Champion of this year's Global League, was her son!

Two concerns occupied Kent Williams's mind. First: to supply protection for young Mr. Ketchum and his mother, Delilah he remembered her name was. She had quite caught his eye at Violet's wedding. It was obvious that that being would go after them eventually. Second: ask his youngest daughter, Misty, to keep far away from Ash for the time being, if only for her own protection. From several comments Daisy and Lilly had made over the last couple of weeks, it seemed that Misty had started a relationship with the boy.

_Of course, she won't listen to me,_ Williams thought with a sigh. _What reason has she for doing so?_ He was very aware of how much his youngest daughter hated him, and he couldn't blame her for that. He had failed her as utterly as he had failed his beloved late wife.

Suddenly, Williams emerged from his introspection. The staff car was parked in some kind of underground car park. There was no sign of Captain Pryde. Immediately, Williams cursed himself as a naïve fool. Kitty was _never_ quiet during a journey, as she had been today. If he hadn't been so busy worrying about Misty His long experience as a soldier kicked in and he reached for his favourite weapon, the Pokéball containing Sunfire, his Flareon. At that moment, a human arm seemingly rendered out of a blue gel-like fluid punched through the bullet-proof glass window and dragged him out of the car.

The arm slammed Williams against the asphalt and the pain blinded him for a second. When he could see again, he saw something that his instincts screamed was impossible. A humanoid woman, completely rendered in blue gel, even her hair, with glowing green snake-like eyes. The creature smiled at him in a way that communicated bottomless scorn and hatred. Williams had seen many horrors in war, but nothing had the same effect as this creature did. Every drop of his blood seemed to change to iced water.

Delilah decided to give the good general a close-up look at the 'weapon' he coveted so much that he was willing to use his daughter as a pawn in his games. She waited for the man to stagger to his feet before knocking him back with a single high kick to the face. As Williams went down, he pressed the 'release' button on his Pokéball.

"Sunfire, use Flame-thrower!" he shouted.

Omega shook her head. _What an idiot! Did he really think something as simplistic as a fire-type attack could stop her or even __hurt__ her?_ With barely a motion, Omega somersaulted through the air, easily avoiding the attack and landed behind the general. She took a moment to blast the Flareon with a Hydro Pump attack, knocking it out. Then she slammed her palms against the sides of Williams' head, stunning him, and jumping over him to land in front of him just as he fell to his knees.

She reached out with vine whips that lashed from the sides of her chest and picked the man up. There was a hum of electricity as she focussed a Thunder attack down the vines into the man's body. She enjoyed watching him thrash for a moment before he lost consciousness.

===========

General Kent Lanning Williams was enjoying a dream where his wife was alive and he could live happily with his family. Then he felt something cold and wet hit his face. He awoke and realised that he had been bound tightly to a chair. A woman stood before him, quite naked and rendered entirely in blue gel-like fluid. Her eyes shone with green light and the only illumination in the room was the moonlight that filtered through her semi-transparent form. The patterns of motion in the fluid that made up her entire body broke the moonlight up into gentle patterns that made Williams think of the sea that Rosemary loved so much

Suddenly, Williams recognised his captor. It was _Delilah Ketchum!_ He remembered her face from the wedding, even if it was now in a terrifyingly alien form. "Ah, you choose to rejoin me, General," Delilah said emotionless.

The mutant woman stepped forward and closed her right hand around his throat. Williams could feel the cold, oily texture of her flesh and began to tremble involuntarily, remembering what Mercedes said that this _being_ had threatened to do to her.

"I am sure you are wondering who I am and what I want," Delilah said in a conversational tone. "It is quite simple. I am your worst nightmare. And if you do not surrender my son to me, this is a nightmare from which _you will never wake up!_"

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	11. Inquisitions

The Omega Mutation  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter and for his patience with this writer :-D

Author's note - I want apologize by the delay in update this fic. Due a very important admission test, I had to use my time mostly to the studies, so I was forced to choose between the studies and the fic writing. But now, I intend return to writing. More of "The Omega Mutation" and "Osteogenesis Imperfecta" and another fics will come soon. :-D

Joshua Falken, January 5th, 2002

* * *

Chapter 11 - Inquisitions

General Kent Williams tried to swallow dryly, but the tight grip that the woman who had identified herself as 'Omega' had around his throat made it impossible. He was trying to control his instinctive terror and to understand what was happening. In his current circumstances, none of these tasks were easy. If the simple sight of Delilah Ketchum in that alien form hadn't already turned his blood turned into liquid helium, the effect of that sight combined with the deadly, supernatural light in her glowing serpent-like eyes...

"So? Where is my son?" Omega asked in the same tone of voice that she would use to ask what the weather forecast was for the next day.

Why, in God's name, does she think that I, of all the people, knew where her son is?

"Mrs Mrs. Ketchum, I don't understand," Williams said, trying to keep his voice level. All those lessons he had received on how to resist interrogation and get the confidence of your captors were firmly in mind. "I don't know where your son"

SLAP! Omega slapped Williams's face. She had not used enough force to break his jaw only because she needed him capable of speech. The mutant woman grabbed the stunned officer's hair with the left hand and stared into his eyes. "Don't try to insult my intelligence, General!" she hissed. "I know that you ordered Ash's kidnapping..."

What? Williams thought.

"I also know that, in some way, you used your own daughter to lure him to you."

'Your own daughter?' Williams thought, his mind locking onto this salient fact. She could only be talking about Misty! After all, she is Ash Ketchum's girlfriend, if Daisy and Lilly's gossip is anything to believe

Omega looked at directly into Williams' eyes. "Now," she whispered, "Assuming that you want to leave this room alive, if not necessarily intact... you had better tell me where you have hidden them."

General Williams' mind span as the reality of his situation became clear in a flash. My God! I am before an alien... or whatever she is... capable to destroy strongly fortified facilities in a blink of an eye, who thinks that I kidnapped her son... and my own daughter!

Omega misinterpreted Williams' stunned silence as defiance. With an angry scowl, she began to use Toxic, leeching deadly acid-like toxins from the hand wrapped around the man's throat. There was a sizzling noise and the awful, unforgettable pork-like smell of burning human flesh. Williams gasped in pain and bit his bottom lip to hold in a scream. Blood trickled down his chin from the bite.

Omega's expression did not alter in the slightest. She released her grip around Williams' throat, noting the horrible burns she had left from her attack. She began to massage her knuckles like a prizefighter and repeated her question. "Where are they, General? Where is my son and your daughter?"

Williams growled weakly. The toxins from the Toxic attack had given him a headache, and that was doing nothing for his infamous temper. "I don't know of what are you talking about!" he shouted. What else could he say?

Omega rolled her eyes. "Why do you military types always insist on doing this the hard way?" she asked. Suddenly, she was punching the man's face and body with blurring speed and stunning force. After a minute of beating, Omega stood back and watched the blood running from the man's nose, noting the heavy bruising all over his face and chest. She hated every minute of this, but she had to remember Ash and Misty Especially Ash "Okay, General," she said. "Now you know the penalty for not co-operating, tell me where they are!"

Williams couldn't see from blood leaking into his right eye from a cut on his brow, but his mind was still assured. "I'm telling you that don't know, you blue-skinned Gorgon!" the black-haired man shouted angrily.

Omega's right eyebrow shot up. Blue-skinned Gorgon? Omega repeated silently. He was creative; she had to give him that much. She had always wondered how the usually demure and peaceful Misty had got her fierce temper. Now she knew.

"Thank you for the praise," she said sarcastically. "Now, if you have finally finished demonstrating your stubborn streak, tell me where you are hiding them!" She gently wiped a little of the blood from the man's brow and looked at him with a mocking smile. Playing this role from a bad movie was frankly embarrassing, but sometimes you just had to give people what they expect if you want results.

Williams closed his eyes, unable to believe her sarcasm and lack of shame. Omega noted that her basic interrogation methods weren't working at all. She had no choice but to use other means. Her black-slitted eyes began to glow. "Tell me, General," she remarked thoughtfully, "have you ever read 'The Lord of the Rings'?"

The military officer looked confused. What she was talking about?

Omega reached out psychically and began to use Nightmare, using one for her favourite sections of her favourite book. "I call this one 'Orc Attack.'"

Suddenly, Williams' heartbeat and breathing accelerated. Pale-skinned, horrifically ugly semi-reptilian creatures waving sharp bladed weapons and firing deadly barbed arrows at him were chasing him in an endless underground warren. Just as the arrows were about to turn him into a human pin cushion, Williams was sitting in the chair again, staring at Omega. Whatever that was, she had somehow tapped into the most primal fears in the human psyche. His breathing and heartbeat were only beginning to slow down. He could smell the tang of urine and realised it was coming from himself.

"Are are you enjoying yourself you sadistic bitch?" Williams spat out, as he looked up into Delilah Ketchum no 'Omega's' glowing green eyes. He was drenched in sweat and was panting hard in panic.

"Enjoy?" Delilah asked with a snort. "Let me turn that question around, General. Did you enjoy kidnapping your own daughter as bait to capture my son?"

"You crazy freak of nature!" he shouted, showing the legendary temper of the Williams family. "Why can't you understand that I don't have anything to do with this?" The man sucked in a deep breath before continuing. "I would never hurt Misty! Never! My girls are all that I have left of Rose I I could never bear to see any of them hurt I" The man's head lowered and Delilah could swear that she could hear his breathing break up into sobs.

Delilah stepped away from her prisoner for a moment and had to hug herself hard. She felt like shit for doing this. While he had been unconscious, she explored Williams' disciplined mind to try to get the information she sought. And to her dismay she felt that, in different circumstances, she could like him, maybe even more than that. Now she was inflicting pain on this man and inflicting psychic terror on him to the point where he was losing all control of his body. To her surprise, her hands were shaking and she felt that crystalline tears were trying to escape her eyes and run down her cheeks.

Oh, she had done this before. Hell, she had done far worse, but that was when she was still Agent Omega of Team Rocket. At that time, however, the vicious devices that the Organisation used to keep her under control had enslaved her mind. She had no excuses this time. She, Delilah Ketchum, Delia Darkholme, was consciously torturing this man before her. Surely this made her the villain of the story, now...

Then Delilah's eyes fell on the picture of Ash at his victory in the Orange Challenge Cluster, two long years ago. This is for Ash, she reminded herself. She would do anything to protect him, anything at all. She didn't have to worry about losing her soul. She had lost that many years ago. I probably could be Mordor's new Dark Queen, she thought. Delilah turned back to her prisoner. "Where is Ash?" she repeated.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Williams nearly screamed.

Omega's eyes narrowed. The voice was eerily calm. Her face was expressionless.

"All right, then," she said coldly. "Just remember that the choice was yours."

She walked over to the window that was the only light source of the room and closed the blinds. Now, Omega and Williams were in total darkness. She turned back and stood behind the sweating military officer. She had hoped that the fear-inducing pheromones that her body produced continually while she was at her default form, with some physical "special effects", would break Williams into telling her Ash and Misty's whereabouts. That hope had not been borne out. Now, the time had come to move beneath the surface of Williams' mind. Deep inside, we all have irrational fears and demons that dominate our subconscious thinking processes. She had to use those against her prisoner now.

Silently, she held one of her hands either side of his head. Reaching out with her psychic powers, she began to probe at Williams' fear responses. To her surprise, she almost immediately found a particularly strong response. She probed at it and found a memory

"Kent! Kent, why don't you play in Grandma's garden?"

"Yes, Mommy!"

Delilah stepped forward into the dream world and watched as the four-year-old who would one day be General Kent Williams tore through the back door of a middle-sized suburban house. From the flora, she assumed that this was somewhere in Johto. This must be one of those life-defining moments that we all retain from our childhoods. Delilah was curious as to why it was associated with the fear emotion

Kent ran excitedly into the big garden, laughing happily. In between the back patio area where his paternal grandparents' garden shed also stood, and the main grassy area of the garden was a Shinto-style wooden arch. Without slowing down a bit, Kent charged through the archway and felt something invisible but clinging grabbing at him.

Instinctively, the boy reeled back and began to twist, trying to get free. To his horror, the near-invisible strands of sticky silk tangled around him further. The boy cried out in terror, stumbled and fell back, his upper body now totally entangled with silk. "Mommy! Daddy! Help me! Help meee!"

"Spinarak!" hissed an inhuman voice. As the terrified boy looked on, a massive (to him) bug-type Pokémon climbed down from behind the arch and leapt onto his chest. From his close perspective, Kent could clearly see the creature's venom-laced fangs and tearing mouthparts as the Pokémon glared at him emotionlessly. This touched something very primitive in the boy's hindbrain. The terror of a creature ensnared by a potential predator. He screamed loudly.

Behind him, the back door was thrown open as Kent's parents and grandparents came tearing out. "Oh my God! Kent, baby!" Kent's mother screamed.

The Spinarak hissed dangerously at the adult humans and reared up, ready to utilise a Poison Sting attack. "Go Growlithe!" Kent's father shouted, releasing his fire-type dog. "Use Ember on that Spinarak!"

From Kent's perspective, the fireball barely missed his nose, but it struck the Spinarak full on and knocked it off of his chest. His mother grabbed him and pulled him along the ground. The Spinarak finally used Poison Sting, but on Growlithe, who was strong enough to resist such an attack. Another Ember attack struck the bug-type, knocking it onto its' back. It struggled for a moment as Kent's father pulled out a Pokéball and threw it at the wild Pokémon. Kent saw the flash as the Pokéball captured the weakened spider-like bug-type.

"Mommy! Mommy, it was going to eat me!" young Kent wailed as his mother tried to untangle the sticky web from around his head and shoulders.

"Shh" his mother soothed. "Don't worry, baby. We've chased it away and it won't ever hurt you again."

"P Promise?" the little boy sobbed, hugging his mother as if he wanted to burrow into her.

"I promise, baby," his mother replied.

Delilah considered this entire scene for a moment, then reached out and touched the association synapse again. She was rewarded by a near-hysterical fear response. He's an arachnophobe? Delilah asked herself in amazement. She could barely believe it: Kent Williams, one of the UNDF's top officers, a man decorated for bravery and courage in the face of incredible odds more time than she cared to count, was... scared of spiders? She had to resist the urge to laugh.

Like most people with phobias, the Williams family had sought therapy for their son, and the phobic reactions were buried deep. However, they were still there. Indeed they would never fade. Delilah pushed on the mental association harder.

Kent looked down and saw a stream of spiders crawling up his legs. He shouted in surprise and tried to shake them off, but his leg was bound to the leg of the chair and he couldn't move. "Get get them off!" he snapped.

"Get what off, General?" Delilah replied gently.

"The spiders, damn you! Get them off!" The first spider, a particularly hairy specimen, was now on Kent's chest. He could feel the needlepoint of the creature's toes gripping its' flesh as it clambered ever upwards. There were still more of them, climbing up his legs and entangling him in thick, choking cobwebs.

"Get them off me! Please!" Kent shouted.

"Why should I do that?" Delilah asked, walking around in front of her prisoner to smile humourlessly at him. "Until you tell me what I need to know, I have no reason to help you whatsoever."

"Please, God! I don't know where Misty and Ash are! I swear it!" the man was babbling. "Please believe me! Oh God, oh God! Get them off of me!"

"But they seem to like you so much," Delilah said with a sadistic smirk. The creatures were all over Kent now. One particularly large one was standing right on his face, so close that he could see every detail of the underside of its' thorax. The man opened his mouth to scream again and it climbed in to his mouth! More of them were crawling into every orifice. Kent Williams screamed like a lost soul, his body jerking and twisting as if he were suffering an epileptic fit. "Where are they, General?" Delilah shouted. "Tell me and this ends!"

"I don't know!" Kent shouted as he writhed in the grip of a legion of imaginary arachnid terrors. "I tell you I DON'T KNOW! Stop it please! Stop it! STOP IT! NOOOOOO!" The man's final desperate jerk was so powerful that he physically lifted the chair off of the ground, and only Delilah's inhumanly fast reactions stopped him from crashing painfully, perhaps with crippling force, to the floor.

Delilah immediately ceased her attack on the man. His eyes rolled up into his head and he sagged in the chair, drool trickling from the corner of his mouth. She turned away and dry heaved for a while. She didn't digest food anymore, but she would have been sick if she could have.

She looked at her catatonic prisoner for a few moments. That was more effective a terror than she had anticipated. She walked away from her prisoner, suddenly feeling the need to wash her body all over, wash until every cubic millimetre of her body was clean again. She exited the room and waited until General Williams recovered somewhat... to continue the interrogation.

================

Meanwhile, three persons and a Meowth jumped over the barbed wire fence of the E. Valdez Metal Salvage, a Team Rocket-owned junkyard, in outskirts of Gunjo City's massive industrial district. The three human figures in black were Jessie Gibson, James Morgan and Mondo Treleaven.

"I knew that these Black Arachnid costumes still will be useful some day!" James commented, grinning.

"Why don't you talk less, and search more, James?" Jessie asked, adjusting the simple mask covering her face. "Mondo, are you sure that the files are here?" She looked around. A scrap yard was the last place in the world in that she search for a missing agent's personnel files...

"Yes, Miss Jessie. According to the computer, sometime after Project Omega was cancelled, all the information about Agent Delia Darkholme was transferred to another location, by the orders of the Boss himself! And this was..."

Before Mondo had the chance of finish his explanation, a growl told them that they aren't alone. Five very angry Houndours were all standing behind them, snarling fearsomely.

"Argh! Meowth Whadda we do now?" a scared Meowth asked no one in particular.

"James! Do something!" she ordered.

"Then I think that is the time to test my new assigned Pokémon," the blue-haired man said, sweating, pulling a Pokéball from his Pokébelt. "Go Vileplume!" There was a flash and a walking flower with bright red petals materialised in front of the befuddled fire/dark-types. "Use Stun Spore, Vileplume!"

"Vile PLUME!" the plant-type responded and spat an orange-yellow cloud of sparkling dust over the Houndours. The Pokémon were paralysed immediately.

"Now use Cut!" James ordered. Vileplume charged and slashed razor-sharp petals over the creatures' muzzles and they all tumbled onto their sides, knocked out.

"You've got a Vileplume?" Jessie asked in shock. James shrugged as he recalled his Pokémon to its' Pokéball. Of all the 251 Pokémon in the world, James had been assigned the same one that his psychotic ex-fiancée, Jessibelle Stephanie Waterstone, had used to torment him. Talk about wild coincidences, Jessie thought. She shook her head and went back to business.

"Okay, let do it this way," Jessie said, taking charge with her usual smoothness. "Mondo and Meowth go to the east side and James and I will go to the west side in search of this..." she grabbed a paper in her costume/cat-burglar's uniform pocket. "IndigoRail Cargo Car number 1953-ADN." They split up (with Mondo visibly upset that he couldn't go with Jessie) and searched by the scrap yard for a half-hour. Then James found, under a mountain of old cars, an old railroad cargo car. His partner's black-gloved hand cleaned the dust covered plate revealing the inscription "1953-ADN".

"WE FOU..." Jessie was about to scream when James covered her mouth with his gloved hand.

"SHHH! Some guard could hear us!" he whispered, then he began to try to open the car's door with his lock-picking skills. Meanwhile, Jessie called Mondo and Meowth through a small radio. When they arrived, James opened the lock.

Jessie entered first. With a flashlight, she found two big metal boxes, apparently completely sealed, with the Greek letter Omega in red on them. They found what they had come to get. She looked in silence to the boxes for some moments: she just needed open that and she would discover what really happened with her mother...

"HEY, WHO ARE YOU?" An angry voice comes from behind them. A huge man, in a guard's uniform, was clearly not very happy to see them...

Everything was over in an instant. Meowth leaped over to the guard and attacking with his Fury Swipes attack. Before the man had a chance to recover, James ordered his Victreebell to knock him out with Sleep Powder. While the guard lay snoozing like a contented baby, Mondo, James and Meowth carried the metal boxes outside the old railroad car, and put it on the guard's pick-up. James noticed that Jessie was painting something on the old car.

Then the redhead gone to them, take the wheel, take them outside the E. Valdez Metal Salvage, smashing down the front gates rather than trying to open them.

"Jessie, what do you wrote behind there?" Meowth asked, while holding for his dear life, while Jessie sped through the streets. Everyone was glad it was night and there wasn't much traffic on the streets, otherwise Jessie would certainly have crashed into someone or something by now.

"Oh, just a little notion of mine," she answered with a smile. What she had written (in lipstick, actually) was 'The Black Spider Gang Was Here!' Hopefully, it would slow an investigation into what had happened a little. "Now, let's get back to the balloon!" Jessie cried out, whipping off her mask.

James winced as the pick-up performed a four-wheel skid as it shot around a corner. That assumes that we live that long, he though, sweat-dropping hard.

===============

Omega was under the shower, thinking hard. She had to find a way to make Williams talk! That is the only way to find Ash! What she don't understand is how he keep saying that he didn't knew their whereabouts, after everything she done!

Maybe because he didn't kidnap them, a voice whispered in her head.

She shook her head. No, he has to know, she told herself. She began to see a possibility of another approach. Hum... he said that he couldn't bear see any of his daughters hurt... Of course, she didn't believe him; after all, he had used Misty as bait...

Omega made a decision: she didn't have hope in that course, but it worth a try, anyway. She strode out of the bathroom, with the water still dropping from her body. On the way to the room where General Williams was, her body, all of sudden and very fast, heated up to nearly the temperature of boiling water. Suddenly quite dry, Omega entered the room.

Even in the darkness, she noticed that the man was awake. Delilah decided to give him one last chance to co-operate. With her legs spread and her hands on her thighs, she leaned over him and looked at him with a mocking smile. "So, General? Did you take the chance to think about your situation? Have you finally decided to tell me where Ash and Misty are being kept?

The black-haired man just rolled his eyes. Omega sighed and walked behind him. She breathed deeply and touched the sides of his head. A hint of doubt crossed her mind. She knew that, if she made a single error, what she was about to do could easily drive him insane. Hell, she would probably go insane if she suffered something like her next physic attack... Then, she looked at Ash's picture. He was holding the Orange Challenge Cluster Trophy with his left hand, while Drake Highway, the Gym Leader of Pumello Island's Moray Eel Gym and the reigning Orange League Champion, was holding Ash's right hand aloft, acknowledging the other trainer's victory. Pikachu sitting on Ash's shoulder. Delilah remembered that she had joked with Ash that she could use the trophy as a barbell. She noticed how his eyes were bright with life and joy... Find him, a deadly part of her soul snapped. Whatever it takes is worth it. Find him.

General Kent Lanning Williams opened his eyes, and saw that he was in the Cousteau Park, close to his daughters' Pokémon Gym. What I doing here? he wondered. In that moment, he realised that there's smoke coming from the Cascade Gym! The man ran as fast as he could. "Please, let then be okay!", he prayed silently.

When he arrived there, he only found ruins. It was almost as if the Gym was destroyed by the detonation of a thermite bomb!

"Misty! Daisy! Lilly!" he yelled but no one answered. He searched although the demolished Gym, and only found their bodies. Bloody and lacerated. "No! Please, this is not happening.... Please!" He covered his face with the hands, tears pouring down his face.

"Are you crying?" A sneering voice asked.

Confused, General Williams lifted his eyes and saw... Misty standing up! But she was clearly dead, her body lacerated and burnt, blood trickling down her body.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT THIS HAPPENED!" She yelled to him, at same time that Daisy, Violet and Lilly stood up, all of them genuine examples of the living dead.

Williams staggered to his feet and began to back away from the nightmare zombies walking towards him. "No" he murmured as fear and guilt filled his voice.

"YOU ARE THE ONE WHO ABANDONED US!" Daisy screamed. They were walking in his direction.

"NO! I I TRIED...! I..." he tried explain to them. Explain how guilty he felt for their mother's death. How guilty he felt for not having the courage to talk with them... to be the father that they needed after poor Rose died

"IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" they yelled at him, like a chorus from Hell.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Back to the reality, General Kent Williams was screaming like an innocent soul, wrongly condemned to the Hell. Omega stopped her attack immediately. The man was still crying, still murmuring the names of his daughters. A great horror struck her: A man capable of using his daughter as a tool in his strategies would never have such a violent reaction! Never! Of course, that meant that

Shaking her head, Delilah pushed forward through the man's weakened mental defences, searching his mind and his memories... She found nothing about Ash or Misty being kidnapped. However, she found a memory that made her feel sick with herself.

General Kent Lanning Williams was at the reception after Violet's wedding. He was trying very clumsily to start a conversation with his daughter, Lilly. He noticed how uneasy she felt about it. "What shows what kind of father I am..." he reproved himself silently. Then he saw her, the beautiful redhead in the midnight-blue dress.

She is really amazing! he thought. No! More than that, she is beautiful! "Hey, Lilly, who is she?" he asked, gesturing casually and trying not to appear too interested in the answer.

"Who?" his third daughter asked curiously, twisting around to see who her father had seen. "Oh! Her? She is Delilah Ketchum, Ash's mother. You know, the mother of Misty's "he is not my boyfriend" boyfriend."

"I understand." Misty has a boyfriend? He asked himself in shock. Oh well! She is sixteen after all...

"Are you interested in her, Dad?" Lilly asked, almost making her father choke on his beer.

"Uh No. No, not at all! What made you think that?"

Lilly smiled. "No reason. Just a strange idea I had."

That was more than Delilah Ketchum could handle... She fled the room and fell to her knees, dry heaves wracking her body. My God... what have I done?! she asked herself as she cowered on the linoleum... 

================

While her father was undergoing the most horrifying experience in his life, Misty Williams paced to and fro inside of the cell in that she had woken up in almost six hours ago. She remembered her waking moment very clearly. A woman very nearly identical to her, wearing the uniform of UNDF major, was watching her. "I hope that you have slept well, Miss Williams," the woman said in a tone of mock courtesy.

"Who are you? What am I doing here?" Misty demanded, using her patented yell.

"Who I am is quite irrelevant," Misty's double explained with a smile. "What you should focus your mind on is this: You are under arrest on charges of helping to hide a former member of Team Rocket and a mutant enemy of Humanity. If you want my advice, I think you should choose your friends better." Then the woman left, leaving Misty alone with her thoughts: Mutant enemy of Humanity? They could only be speaking about Mrs. Ketchum! How did they discover about her mutation? That meant that Ash and his mother were in danger! But... a former member of Team Rocket? No chance! The simple idea of Delilah Ketchum working beside Jessie and James, or worse, of Butch and Cassidy, was a joke. And a very bad one! Then, suddenly, she remembered something that killed the laughter before it could leave her lips. Delilah had said to her: "Misty, dear, this isn't about you, it is about me. After everything I've gone through in my life, it is very, very difficult for me to trust anyone..." Then there was what Ash had said about his mother's past (and he had been very evasive regarding that): "My mother is afraid that certain people that know about her mutation will force her to do terrible things again, things that made her very guilty. That is the why she hides her powers. But a thing I guarantee: she already paid in full and something more for what she done while she was a slave for that people..."

My God! If Ash for "certain people" meant Team Rocket... Misty cannot finish her thought. Sounds in the corridor indicated something large was on the move. What is going on? she thought.

Through the bars, the young woman saw somebody being carried through the corridor on a stretcher. Whoever it was had been tied the stretcher as if they were a dangerous lunatic or something. The person was a boy, whose brown eyes were glazed from the effects of immunosupressor drugs and tranquillisers injected continually in his blood stream; a 13-year-old boy with messy black hair that shook as if he were suffering from a fever. Misty recognised him immediately.

"ASH!" Instinctively, Misty stretched out the arm through the bars to reach him. One of the soldiers lashed out with the butt of his Eradicator rifle, crushing her hand against the cell door. Misty cried out in pain and pulled her arm back.

While she massaged her right hand, she saw Ash disappear down the corridor.

=============

General Jeffrey Archer Straker, regional commander of Sector Athena and commander of the Clearview Valley Base in Johto, strode quickly in the room, where Doctor Thomas Sanders and Major Sandra Stormer were waiting for him.

"So? Is he ready?"

"Not yet, General. It will still take five minutes for his system to metabolise enough of the tranquillisers so that he can be interrogated."

The black-haired man snorted. He didn't understand where his perfect plan had failed! He didn't think that Omega would move to the offensive so quickly, first destroying the UN Defense Forces bases in the Orange Islands and, then, kidnapping Williams! It is true that Straker didn't care with what she might do to that softhearted idiot, but... He was still a brother UNDF officer. Worse still, the ease with which Williams was kidnapped was putting a lot of pressure on Sector Athena. As the General Secretary had rightly asked: What reason did the United Nations's member states have to fund a specialised anti-terrorist force if it couldn't even protect one of the UNDF's own senior officers?

Through the window of the observation room, he saw Omega's offspring secured into the chair that formed part of the Mind Sifter interrogation machine. Right now, he needed the boy's testimony more than ever. Straker was proud of his Poker face. He could keep the same expression if he were complimenting a lady on her dress or if he were ordering the assassination of a terrorist leader, so no one could see the torment in his heart. The thought of using the Sector Athena's most powerful (and most illegal) interrogation apparatus on a thirteen-year-old turned his stomach. Get over it man, he told himself firmly. He's not a 'boy.' He IT is some kind of hybrid Pokémon, nothing more.

The five minutes had passed. "Begin the interrogation." he ordered.

================

Sleep. Cold. His arms and legs could not move. Shadows in doctors' and soldiers' uniforms. Cold. Weakness. Sleep with hallucinations. Cold. Fever. Movement. Again the shadows. Misty's blurred face. Cold. Something being placed around his head. Darkness. Those were the sensations that went through Ash Ketchum's consciousness since his kidnapping until he came to some measure of awareness in this unmarked room.

Suddenly, Ash was jerked awake by a loud siren that seemed to screaming from right next to his ear. With all the drugs in his system, Ash was totally disoriented. He didn't know where he was or what was happening. "State your name!" demanded a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. 

"Huh...? Who are you?" Immediately, a massive electric shock racked Ash's body, making him whimper in pain.

"Answer the question! Who are you?"

Too confused due the tranquillisers and truth serums injected in his body, Ash only could answer the truth. "Ash... Ket-Ketchum." Immediately, a feeling of pleasure invaded his mind and all Ash could do was fight to stay conscious.

Major Stormer continued to do routine questions to their prisoner to allow the base computer to calibrate itself with the subject's brainwave patterns. When it finished, the system would know immediately when Ash was telling the truth, flooding his brain with a sensation of pleasure, or if he was lying or refusing to speak, in this case it would stimulated the pain centres of Ash's brain. The pleasure-pain mechanism, with the mind confusing drugs, guaranteed that Ash would speak... sooner or later.

"Who are you?! Ash got to scream for the voice, before the pain attacked again.

"This is not important!" Straker himself took charge of the interrogation. He also switched the Mind Sifter's response apparatus over to manual, trusting his own instincts from years of law enforcement over the machine's purely logical approach. "You should be worried about your future, Mr. Ketchum. Given your actions to date, that is looking like it will be spending the rest of your life in prison!"

"But... why? I don't..."

"You have abetted Team Rocket agent Delia Darkholme's flight from justice!"

Delia Darkholme? The small part of Ash's mind that could still think rationally, and just not to react to the artificial incentives produced by the computer, realised that they knew about his mother. My God... now what?

"Now Mr. Ketchum... Where is your mother's hide out?"

"I don't know!" Pain.

The general repeated the question. Ash repeated the answer: the Pokémon trainer knew that if they were asking that, it was because she was not at home or in Professor Oak's laboratory... 

Straker decided to change tactics. "We know that Omega has a weakness, because she spent several days regenerating in a specialised facility," Straker announced. "What is that weakness?" Straker increased the flow of hallucinogens and the intensity of the pain stimuli, reducing the boy's self-awareness and ability to resist to almost nothing.

Ash bit the lips. I can't answer that! His head was spinning. If at least he was not with that fever... Straker repeated the question. "Go to the hell!!" Ash screamed, receiving the painful answer.

"You first, mutant freak!" Straker hissed in reply, his frustration and his guilt at torturing a child finally catching up with him. Ash nearly tore his arms and legs off as the pain tried to throw him from the chair of the Mind Sifter.

For fifteen minutes, Ash bravely resisted the torture and the threats. Straker looked at the biofeedback monitors and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. The effect of the drugs and the delta rhythm inducers wasn't increasing, it was decreasing, as if something were adapting to and neutralising their effects. The boy's mutant physiology, he decided. Ultimately, even the Mind Sifter wouldn't affect the boy. Of course, if the body was tough, the mind had a weakness. Without a flicker of guilt, Straker decided to use his special technique. A monitor flickered into life on the wall in front of the boy's eyes.

"Very well, Mr. Ketchum. Since you refuse to collaborate, I am forced to use more rigorous methods." The voice said. The image of Misty in her cell appeared at that moment. She was clearly very afraid. Two very strong soldiers entered in the cell and they grabbed her roughly. "Since you are clearly too strong minded to interrogate properly, I will see if your young friend is any easier to break. I do hope that my soldiers don't damage her too badly before I can start work on her It would be a shame to have such a pretty child damaged before I can enjoy her." Straker's voice dripped with sadism and venom. It was the voice of a man who would subject a girl to unimaginable torments and enjoy it.

"STOP! LEAVE HER ALONE!" Ash screamed as the two soldiers began to tear Misty's clothes apart.

"Concern for your friend? How touching!" Straker sneered. "If you want to save your lover, Mr. Ketchum, you will co-operate! What is your mother's weak point?"

"It's AO-X! A poison that Team Rocket developed to capture wild Dittos!" a voice answered. Ash blinked in confusion. Who said that? he asked himself. On the monitor, the two soldiers released Misty and stepped away. The monitor blinked off.

"You made the right decision, Mr. Ketchum." The voice of his captors answered. Ash only understood that moment that the voice that had heard was his own... He had revealed his mother's weak point... He had betrayed her!

"Mom..." he murmured, crying, before the tranquillisers put him to sleep.

Straker slumped backwards in his chair, turning off the Mind Sifter and pulling his microphone headset off of his head. He ran a shaky hand through his hair. That was one of the most unpleasant experiences that he had ever had, but it was all worth it. He had the information that he wanted.

After a moment sitting in the darkness of the control room, Straker slapped the intercom control. "Communications, send a priority signal to UNDF-GHQ about this 'AO-X' substance," he ordered. "They probably know about it. I want as much of the UNDF stockpile of the chemical that we can get without raising eyebrows in this base by the end of the week." He sighed. "Security. Have a squad sent to Interrogation Room 3 and take Prisoner Omega Two to the Slammer." He ordered, mentioning the special morgue room, build to hold dead bodies with suspection of a Level Four virus infection. Now, it was being used to hold a boy with mutant genes.

Straker, in one of the sudden changes of mood he was famed for, suddenly jumped to his feet and walked into an office next door to the control room. It was a sophisticated TV recording studio, with a set designed to look like a stereotypical jail cell. Major Stormer, once again in her 'Misty' costume, was sitting on the bunk, smoking a cigarette idly. "Did my 'performance' do the job, sir?" she asked.

Straker smiled. "Perfectly, Major. If you ever tire of security work, you have a future ahead of you in Hollywood or Calcutta." Stormer laughed and gave her commanding officer a mock bow.

"I'm disappointed," one of the soldiers remarked. "I was looking forward to the kid holding out so we could do the whole script."

"In your dreams, pal," Stormer snapped, making the soldiers laugh again.

Straker rolled his eyes. "Dismissed, Major," he said gently. "For god's sake, get some normal clothes on."

=============

Slowly, Delilah Ketchum rose from the ground and returned to the room where Williams was, still unconscious. She had spent the last hour fruitlessly trying to decide how she could make amends, even if only on a small scale, for the crime she had just committed. She had not only wasted time that she could have used to seek Ash, but she had needlessly and sadistically tortured Misty's father! Delilah wondered if she could ever face Misty again... Now the orange-haired girl would have all the reasons in the world to hate her...

The mutant woman breathed deeply and began to use Chansey's healing powers on the General. Slowly, he began to return to consciousness.

"What the...?" he asked weakly. Then he saw Omega leaning over him, and his heart almost stopped in terror. Delilah realised that he was waiting for her to begin torturing him again. Instead, she calmly untied the man and took his hands in her own.

I deserve such a reaction, she thought, consumed by shame and guilt. "I'm sorry, General Williams," Delilah said with her head lowered, unable to face her victim, let alone look him in the eye.

Did she say that she was... sorry?!? Williams asked in a daze.

"I... I feel a lot of the pain that I have put you through, and I am so very sorry," she continued. "I really thought that you were involved with the kidnapping of my son, but I... I was wrong. Please forgive me."

Kent Williams was totally astonished. She was not just apologising, which by itself would already be something incredible, for she was being completely sincere! It was written in her face! But the surprises had not ended. Delilah decided to add a detail. 

"And General... Misty doesn't hate you. Actually, she thinks that it is you who hates her, because she thinks that you blame her for your wife's death. If God gives you the chance, talk with her about that, before it is too late."

Before Williams could assimilate these revelations enough to respond, Delilah teleported him to Vermilion City. His destination was Francis Crick Ecological Park, a nature reserve within walking distance of the city's local UNDF base.

Delilah Ketchum slowly sat down in the floor and she began to cry. She had tortured an innocent man and she still didn't have any clues on the whereabouts of Ash and Misty... "What I do now?" she murmured.

Much to Delilah's surprise, a rueful, humorous masculine voice, one that echoed in her mind rather than in the room, replied to her question. I believe that I might be of some assistance to you, my sister, it said.

* * *

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	12. Mother and Son

The Omega Mutation  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter and for his patience with this writer :-D

* * *

Chapter 12 - Mother and Son

"Huh?!" Delilah exclaimed, jumping to her feet. For an instant, she imagined that she did it: that she had finally committed enough crimes for God to punish her in this life, sending her insane. She was hearing voices?

I said that I can be of some help for you, my sister. And no, you are not insane. The voice said gently.

Delilah swallowed dryly and forced herself to be calm. She noticed now that the voice had an external origin: it was a telepathic communication. "All Right! Who are you? Because, for your information, I have... I had a sister, and have never had a brother!" She immediately felt like an idiot for making a statement like that, but she couldn't come up with any better a response.

Whoever it was, she felt laughter in its' voice. It is true that the being that you once were had a sister, Delia Darkholme. However, in your new incarnation, you have a brother. We are brother and sister; fellow experiments.

'Fellow experiment?' She thought in amazement. She remembered that there was another Team Rocket project underway at the same time as the project that created her. What was it called? Oh yes; Project Mewtwo.

The amusement was still present in the telepathic voice. I must apologise for contacting you without a proper introduction, the voice said in a sarcastic tone. However, I was under the impression that you were interested in the whereabouts of your son.

Hearing that cleared all the confusion and fear from Delilah Ketchum's mind. "WHERE IS HE?" she screamed at the considerable top of her voice. "TELL ME NOW!"

I will do far better than that... sister. the voice said, suddenly vaguely menacing. Suddenly reality melted away from around the mutant woman and she was suddenly... elsewhere...

It was a very cold room, full of medical equipment. A middle-aged blond man, with a doctor's coat entered the room and walked over to the table in the center of the room. On the table, a black-haired boy was lying, trembling with fever and coughing wretchedly.

Dr. Thomas Sanders was about to pick up a sample of Ash Ketchum's blood, preparing a syringe. He didn't notice when his 'patient' opened his glazed eyes.

The boy moved more quickly than a thunderbolt. Long sessions of torture and repeated sedation had completely overloaded the conscious mind of Ash Ketchum, leaving the same lethal hard-wired survival instincts that existed within Agent Omega. He tore the IV out of his arm and wrapped it around the doctor's throat and then yanked on the end of the line attached to its stand, lifting the surprised man off the ground. The doctor gagged and scrabbled at the plastic tube that was quickly choking the life out of his body.

Ash dropped the suffocating man and exploded forwards, his limbs a barely visible blur of motion. He was moving so fast that the young UNDF sentry walking down the corridor didn't even have time to realize that the boy was in the corridor. Two fists travelling at nearly sixty miles an hour slammed into his abdomen, knocking him unconscious and nearly exploding his entrails out of his back.

Ash continued to sprint down the corridor blindly, his flight-or-fight instincts driving him to find some escape route. Far behind him, Dr. Sanders finally dragged himself to his feet and found an intercom panel. "C... Command and Control." he gasped hoarsely, still trying to clear his airway. "Unit Omega Two has... *cough* escaped!"

The alarms began to scream throughout the base. "Security Condition Red! Main base security seal penetrated! All personnel to defense stations!"

Ash covered his ears. He didn't want to hear the continual warnings and alarm bells. With a furious growl, he tore open the door of an electrical switching panel and physically ripped the main power cable out of the side of the fuse box. The entire security wing of the Sector Athena base was suddenly in darkness. The alarms died with almost deafening suddenness. A few moments later, emergency lights snapped on, but the dim twilight illumination was more of a hindrance than a help to the scrambling soldiers.

Ash's suddenly hyper-keen senses gave him several minutes warning of the troop of soldiers descending a nearby stairwell. He flattened himself against the wall and waited until they ran past, heading for the torture chamber that they had held him in for too long. Then he ran up the stairs, ascending several levels in world-record time, his muscles operating so super-efficiently that he didn't even break a sweat.

On the top level, Ash's nose twitched as he smelt fresh air, the unmistakable scent of freedom. Without any visible hesitation, he began to run towards the source of the smell. In his current condition, he heard the soldier's breathing and heartbeats long before he reached their position. 

The soldiers raised their pneumatic tranquilliser rifles as the escapee ran into view. "Stop right now, Ketchum!" the leader ordered.

Inexplicably, the boy joined the two hands and it extended the arms in the soldiers' direction. An energy, the like of which he had never felt before, entered through his feet, rose through the legs and he felt concentrating on his chest. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" he roared, and began running again in their direction. This took the soldiers quite by surprised. They were ready for the boy to duck away from them and try to lose them in the maze of corridors. They were ready for bluster and defiance, but they were not ready for a head-on assault. Before any of them could clear their wits enough to react, a bright white beam of light shot from the boy's arms and slammed into the floor in between them. There was an immense explosion as the hyper beam attack flash-vaporised the concrete and sent all five soldiers tumbling through the air, quite unconscious... or worse.

Ash physically tore the last door from its' hinges and charged out across the grass and through the sunlight that symbolised freedom. One last barrier awaited, a chain-link fence topped with razor wire. Driven by the most basic animal instincts, the boy accelerated even further, fully willing to jump the fence with a single bound. 

He didn't notice the sniper on top of the building behind him until the tranquilliser dart hit him on the back of his neck.

As Ash lay on the grass, his consciousness fast fleeing, he saw the emblem on the shoulders of the black-uniformed soldiers who came to bind him and carry him back to imprisonment. He also saw twin mountains, Mounts Satoshi and Shigeru. 

Then everything went black.

Delilah returned to the reality immediately. Her fluid-like legs weakened. Ash discharging a Hyper-beam? Impossible! For that, he should be capable to gather and use Earth Energy, like a Clefairy or a Tauros... Unless...

The mutant woman shook her head. She could think of the ramifications later. Firstly, she had to free her son!

Delilah's mind raced for a few minutes, as she remembered the identification patches on the soldier's uniforms in her vision. A different symbol had replaced the polar world map of the United Nations between the laurel garlands on the logo. It had been a stylised Greek statue. That was the symbol of Sector Athena, the UNDF's elite anti-terrorist wing. Rumour in Team Rocket had it that Sector Athena was often willing to use methods that the UN Security Council might not normally approve. That was the answer then! They were the ones who had kidnapped Misty... and Ash.

She finally knew who was responsible. Now, she had to figure out where Ash was.

Delilah pulled open a drawer and pulled out a large-scale map of the Kanto region. The only clue she had was the unmistakable sight of Mounts Satoshi and Shigeru that Ash had seen before he lost consciousness. Mount Shigeru presented a nearly vertical face to Ash's eyes. If she remembered her long-ago schoolgirl geography lessons, that put him to the east of the twin mountains, in the foothills of the Tyranitar mountain range, near Blackthorn City in Johto. There was only one UNDF base anywhere near that location, and its' isolation and strategic unimportance made it the logical place to put the base of a counter-insurgency force. The officially mothballed Clearview Valley Air Force Base.

======

Two pairs of eyes watched as Delilah Ketchum, now again in her winged fighting form, rose from her hideaway and flew off to the north-east, effortlessly breaking the sound barrier as she did so. The first watcher's eyes had been created in a geneticist's laboratory. The second watcher's eyes had been old when the Earth was still young.

Well, Mewtwo told his 'mother', I suspect that this concludes our involvement in this matter.

Mew watched with senses unknown to most life forms for as long as she could until even she could no longer see the unnatural spawn of man and Pokmon as she raced to liberate her offspring. She was not as confident of the outcome of this matter as her genetically engineered 'child'. The prophecy was quite clear child, she replied. I am still not convinced that it was correct for us to interfere in any way.

Mewtwo snorted good-naturedly. He had always preferred action to the endless observation and non-interference advocated by the older legendary Pokémon. The prophecy says that no one may interfere in the battle between light and darkness, mother, he said with a confident grin. However, it didn't mention not helping her recover her child from the human filth that stole him from her.

Mew watched Mewtwo teleport away and recalled the terms of the ancient prophecy again. A part of the Prophecy of the Chosen One that even faithful Slowking was unaware existed.

After Three Cycles around the Sun  
A battle will come when the Dark Bright wakes  
Her first strike, an soul twisted and enslaved  
Her second attack, lost and desperate  
by the thought of the loss of the One  
who keeps the Light in her heart,  
The Chosen One, who will need all his courage  
to alone stop her third Shadow of Darkness,  
to alone brake the Ring of Pain,  
when the Final Lightning seals their fate  
Its' bright killing the Shadow in her heart  
And bring the Dark Guardian to the path of Light..."

The ancient god of the Pokémon shook her head and then vanished.

======

Meanwhile, in a cabin hidden in the middle of the Viridian Forest, Jessie Gibson breathed deeply, trying calm herself. She stared blankly through the window, while she waited for James and Mondo to open the locks of the boxes. "Jessie! Meowth! We opened the boxes!" James called out in an excited tone of voice.

Moments later, she was standing before several boxes full of DVD-ROMs, photos, documents and even a Pokébelt with six black and red Pokéballs - a special design exclusive to high ranking Team Rocket agents. 'This 'Darkholme' woman must have been quite a big shot in the organisation,' Jessie thought, much impressed.

Soon after, she found a personnel record. It name on the file was "Delia Hanako Darkholme". Jessie swallowed dryly and her eyes bugged out. She couldn't believe in what she was seeing.

"What's going on, Jessie?" James asked, concerned.

Jessie wordlessly stuck the file under James' nose. The file photo, although old, was of someone that they knew very well. Delilah Ketchum.

"Meowth!! Den... dat Pokémon-woman... da twerp's mother... and that dis 'Darkholme' dame were the same person?!" James's reaction was no different from that of the stunned normal-type.

"Pokémon-woman?" Mondo asked. Were they finally going to explain what had happened at Ash Ketchum's house weeks ago?

"Forget that, Mondo!" The boy shrank into a corner in reaction to Jessie's obvious anger. Jessie continued to read, while James searched the pictures. Then, she exclaimed: "It is not possible!"

"What?" then the clear blue-haired young man saw. Under the heading, 'Family', there was a name: 'Diane Miyamoto Darkholme - Sister'. Jessie didn't want to believe what that so clearly implied. It was a coincidence, nothing more.

However, James was quickly able to find more information that only confirmed what Jessie feared. It was a photograph of Miyamoto, Jessie's mother, in a hospital bed holding a tiny baby. Standing next to her, grinning and shooting a 'V-for-victory' gesture at the camera was Delia Darkholme/Delilah Ketchum. "That must be some kind of mistake!" Jessie exclaimed, beginning to shake. "She. she cannot be related to my mother!" Jessie exclaimed.

"I... I'm afraid that it must be true, Jessie," James said in his usual mournful tone of voice. "Everything we've seen confirms it."

Jessie was silent when she saw the photo. The woman in the bed really was her mother: Amongst the little that she remembered of her early life, that face was always clear. She could not escape the truth any longer. Jessie dropped the photograph, turned and fled blindly from the cabin. She didn't stop moving until she reached a small stream that ran through the woods near the cabin.

James pursued his partner and caught up with her as she fell to her knees before the water. "Jessie," he said quietly. He reached out to touch her shoulder. Jessie whirled and tried to lash out at him, but James knew her well enough to seize her wrists and expertly immobilise her.

James held Jessie tightly until her muscles relaxed and he could feel dampness on his chest. She was crying. "It can't be true, James," she moaned. "Don't you see what this means? If this is true, that means that the... monster that nearly killed me is my aunt! It... it means that I might be a monster too! I don't want to be a monster!"

James smiled kindly and lifted Jessie's chin so he could look into her eyes. "Jessie, I don't know what is happening... but I think the answer is in those files. If we don't try to find them there, then we will never know for sure what this means, for you and for us."

Drying a tear that obstinately ran of her green eyes, the red-haired woman nodded. Slowly, they returned to the cabin with James hugging her tightly. Jessie was holding James too, as if she were afraid to let him go.

======

On that exact moment, a black shadow watched from the summit of a hill near the Clearview Valley base. A shadow that had glowing green eyes with slitted serpentine pupils.

A red car had just left the base. The shadow saw whom it was that drove the car and the glowing eyes narrowed, their light growing brighter and more demonic. There was a liquid blue ripple and a blur of motion before a harmless-looking Zubat fluttered off in pursuit of the car.

======

Major Sandra Stormer of the UNDF's elite Sector Athena anti-terrorist force was feeling a certain satisfaction as she drove along Highway 8. The day had been most productive. They had, at last, found the weakness of the mutant weapon known as Omega. Although she wasn't exactly in the 'need to know' loop, she understood from a few friends in the Command & Control rooms that several litres of a chemical similar to the AO-X toxin would arrive at the base in the morning. The ambitious soldier was already imagining the awards and medals that she would receive for her part in acquiring the world's most dangerous weapon for use by the UNDF. She was aware that it would mean the slavery of a woman and her son, and the permanent internment of the boy's girlfriend (for the General could not allow anyone who knew who Omega really was their liberty), well that didn't weigh heavily on her conscience. Like many career-oriented people in the military, she considered 'collateral damage' unfortunate, but necessary in the greater scheme of things.

It was probably the fact that she was daydreaming of her Lieutenant Colonel's eagles on her uniform that she didn't see the shape of a woman, seemingly carved out of shining metal, that stood in the middle of the road. The impact was violent enough to cause the car's engine compartment to collapse in on itself in a deadly concertina of metal. Stormer had, foolishly, not being wearing her seatbelt, so the force of inertia catapulted her through the car's windscreen and several yards down the road.

When the major finally stopped, the woman slowly turned and walked in direction of her victim. Sandra Stormer turned in time of seeing it transforming from silver metal to a kind of translucent blue fluid. In a sudden epiphany of terror, Stormer understood who was her attacker. Omega.

The young officer tried to move, but she felt invisible psychic hands holding her limbs rigid. She couldn't even speak. Omega stood over the bleeding woman for a long moment looking down at her impassively. "Hmm," Omega mused aloud. Her green eyes shone with a lethal light. Now it was quite obvious what had happened. With a little make-up here and there, the right clothes and by mimicking Misty's unique hairstyle, the woman would be a close enough facsimile of the girl from Cerulean City to fool Ash for long enough to capture him. "Truly a remarkable resemblance to young Miss Williams. So, you are the one who deceived my son to enable your cowardly organisation to capture him. Tell me, dear. Do you like to kidnap and abuse children?" In a sudden excess of fury, Omega threw Stormer against the one of the trees that lined the highway. Omega walked slowly over to the fallen soldier, who was groaning in pain.

Strong, icy-cold hands suddenly lifted Stormer from the ground. A cool, oily hand wrapped around her mouth and she could feel the alien chill of Omega's flesh as the mutant whispered gently into her ear. "Enjoy the ride, darling." Delilah ran a Thunderwave attack directly through her body into Stormer's body. Her hand stopped anyone from hearing the woman's agonised scream. As soon as the soldier was totally paralysed, Delilah extended her wings and launched herself towards a spot she had picked within the forest around the base. She wanted a little privacy for what was to come next. They landed several kilometres away. Delilah... no, she was totally Omega now... turned the paralysed woman around and looked into her eyes. "If you have any last thoughts, now is the time," she said emotionlessly. "I am afraid that when I am done with you, there is a better-than-evens chance that you will never have another thought ever again in your life."

Five minutes later, Omega finally released Sandra Stormer from her psychic grip. The woman, who had long since fallen into a deep coma, crumpled to the ground in a pool of her own body wastes. Delilah had read the woman's mind so thoroughly that she strongly suspected that she knew Stormer better than the woman knew herself, and it wasn't a particularly pleasant experience. However, she now knew where Sector Athena were keeping Ash and Misty, and what security surrounded them.

Delilah was about to leave when she realised that she had forgotten something. If Major Stormer recovered, her superiors might chose to try to use her to deceive Ash again. As a conscientious mother, she could not allow such a threat to continue to exist. She rolled the comatose woman over and raised her right hand. Her fingertips extended and lengthened until they were three-inch-long razor-sharp blades. Then, with the calm deliberation of a surgeon, she extended those deadly blades towards Stormer's face.

======

The lights in Misty Williams' cell suddenly snapped to full brightness, giving the girl from Cerulean City one of her all time most unpleasant awakenings. She looked up in a daze to see Major Sandra Stormer (AKA 'The Evil Twin' in Misty's thoughts) standing in the door with an armed guard. The young trainer was about to stick her tongue out at her doppelganger in an act of defiance when the woman turned to the guard accompanying her. "Thank you Sargent, that will be all," she said. There was a blur of motion so fast that Misty could not follow it. The guard struck the wall opposite Misty's cell with an unpleasantly final-sounding 'crunch' and collapsed lifelessly to the floor.

Misty was too shocked to move as Stormer scowled at the lock on the cell door. "I expected a mechanical lock, but this one is electronic. Stand back." Misty obeyed. She saw the major's hand change into a violet, gelatinous substance, somewhat like the body of a Muk. When she touched the lock, there was an acrid smell and the lock (as well as the door) began to melt away. Suddenly, a loud alarm began to shriek.

"Damn! The door must have had a secondary alarm circuit!" The woman cocked her fist, which began to glow a bright red-gold colour, and punched the door off of its' hinges. "Okay, Misty, it's time to get out of here!"

Misty's befuddled brain finally responded as Delilah took on her 'fighting' shape (neglecting her helm for Misty's sake). She recognised her saviour at once, although it was nearly impossible for her to believe what she was seeing the gentle woman do. "Mrs. Ketchum?!" she blurted stupidly.

Delilah smiled. Misty had not notice the devastating guilt that the mutant woman felt. "Yes, it's me. Now, we can go?" She looked up and down corridor urgently. "Before the bellboys of this hotel arrive perhaps?"

Misty nodded and took the woman's hand. Then she was not so much running, more like flying through the air like an acrobat's streamer as Ash's mother dragged her down the corridors of the military base that had come to be her prison.

======

General Jeffrey Straker lifted the head. The sudden alarm had awoken him from a deep sleep, and it took him a few moments to realise what was happening. When he did gather his wits, however, he ran for the Command & Control room. He was still buttoning his uniform shirt as he ran into the room. "Security alert in the low-security detention wing, General," one technician reported professionally.

Straker knew what that meant. Someone was stealing that idiot Kent Williams' daughter out from underneath his nose! He looked at the security monitors in time to see Omega herself calmly cutting down a group of guards with lethally accurate Swift attacks. He could guess what her next objective would be.

"Squad Bravo to intercept the intruder!" Straker ordered. "Squad Epsilon to surround the maximum-security detention area! We cannot let her take Omega-two! Enact tactic 34 immediately!"

======

The room was kept at a very low temperature in an attempt to keep its' special occupant quiescent. Although Ash's body was filled with sufficient sedatives to kill a normal boy of his age, he was conscious. He was shaking with fever as his enhanced immune system continued to purge his body of toxins and his breaths formed little clouds above his lips.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open as his subconscious mind reacted to a familiar summons. "Mom," he whispered.

======

Omega went from a world-record-pace sprint to a dead stop so suddenly that Misty (who was hanging onto her hand desperately) slammed into her. Had she just heard Ash's voice?

Suddenly, a group of soldiers boiled out into the corridor. Delilah didn't so much as blink before she snatched their weapons out of their hands with a series of String Shot attacks. She raised her hand and fired a Thunderbolt at the men, knocking them aside, staggering and twitching. The mutant woman blurred forwards and with a series of fast martial arts moves, knocked those still able to move unconscious.

Misty had been impressed, and more than a little afraid. She had never seen anything move so fast. Nothing human, rather...

The mis-matched pair tore through the corridors of the base, sweeping aside any and all opposition that was luckless enough to find them. Or rather, to be more precise, Omega knocked them aside. Misty could only shrink back in growing terror. She had never ever seen anything capable of such clinical violence as the woman before her. Finally, they reached an armoured door. Somehow, Misty knew that what they sought awaited them within. About thirty soldiers stood in three ranks, aiming powerful weapons their way. "Stay here," Delilah intoned. "I'll be back." Misty looked up into the alien eyes of Ash's mother and felt cold. There was no doubt that she was enjoying this.

"Stand aside if you want to live," Omega announced to the soldiers. The guards shifted uncomfortably. They were veterans of nightmare conflicts against religious fanatics of the worst kind. Most of them had never expected to feel fear ever again. However, Omega was something utterly unlike anything they had encountered before. She was, for a start, far, far more dangerous.

Omega raised a hand and casually projected a Zap Cannon attack at the soldiers. The impact of the attack blew armed men and women in every direction. From her hiding place, Misty swore that she saw one or two arms or legs that were no longer attached to their bodies.

After the smoke cleared, Delia used a Mega Kick to open the door. The room beyond was empty. With a dangerous scowl, she picked up one of the soldiers, seemingly at random. She looked in his eyes and announced, in a remarkably controlled tone of voice. "Your life will be noticeably freer of pain if you tell me where the prisoner who had been kept here is right now."

"Where is the prisoner that was here?"

The soldier pressed his lips together defiantly. Omega's face took on a more demonic quality as she began to squeeze his throat and apply a little electric current through her body. "Where is he?" she asked again.

"Mrs. Ketchum!" Misty gasped, horrified. The man was going blue! Mrs. Ketchum was about to kill him with her bare hands!

"Misty," she replied in a level tone of voice. "Please do not interfere. In time you will understand, although I pray to the gods that you never have to do something like this yourself." The level, inhuman menace of those words was enough to turn the blood in Misty's veins into icy water. It took all of her self-control not to lose control of her bladder. 

Delilah turned back to her prisoner and casually morphed her free hand into a Scizor's claw. The razor-sharp steel pincers lifted up to the terrified man's eyes. "Trooper, I am growing tired of repeating myself, so I will only ask one more time. Where is he?"

"In the... ambulance." the soldier squeaked in terror. The mutant woman nodded. "Thank you for your help," she said calmly. Then she banged the man's head against the wall with bone-cracking force and then dropped him to the ground, dismissing him from her attention.

Delilah seemed to be still for a moment before looking at Misty. "Do you want to leave now?" she asked, her voice so normal that it startled the girl.

"Y... yes," Misty replied, her voice high-pitched with terror. There was a clear unspoken addition of 'Please don't kill me!' in the girl's voice.

"Then, go back up the corridor, take the first right, continue on to the second door and continue along that corridor until you reach the fire exit there. Please wait for me underneath the patio roof over the door. I strongly suspect that you will not meet any relevant resistance. Omega's eyes had returned to their default, shining reptilian form. They seemed razor sharp as they glared at Misty. "Did you understand?"

Misty nodded spasmodically. Before her eyes, a chitinous black helmet covered Delilah's head. Powerful wings, like those of a Dragonite spread from her back. The woman raised her hands over her head and unleashed a powerful Aeroblast attack. There roof of the building, and the three intervening floors, were all blown away and Agent Omega launched herself into the skies.

Below her, a trembling Misty ran for the exit in the directions that she had been given by Mrs. Ketchum... No... she didn't think that was who had given her those directions at all.

======

Ash was being taking away from the base in a military ambulance. A nurse was fighting a losing battle with the boy's immune system while trying to keep him sedated. Suddenly, the ambulance lurched to a halt, throwing the woman to the front of the compartment.

"What the...?" the driver began to ask, when he saw the being illuminated by the headlamps. What looked like a cross between a dragon-type, a bug-type and a fighting-type Pokémon had dropped out of the sky and had stopped the ambulance with one hand pressed to the grille.

Omega blurred forwards and punched through the windscreen. She grabbed the driver and the soldier riding shotgun by the front of their shirts, pulled them through the window (shattering the remains in the process) and then tossed them into some nearby trees.

Omega climbed onto the roof of the driving compartment and then peeled open the roof of the main compartment of the ambulance as if it were a sardine can. Mother and son looked at each other.

What have they done to him? Delilah thought in horror, terrified by what she could see of her child's state. The nurse had staggered to her feet and looked up uncertainly at the demon perched on the roof of the ambulance. "Run away," Omega advised, her voice colder than liquid nitrogen. The nurse didn't need to be told twice.

Omega tore the IV lines from her son's body and ripped of the rip-proof webbing straps from his body. Hugging her son as gently as she could, Delilah rose into the skies. From the height in that she was, she could see the entire Clearview Valley Base. Her first impulse was to eradicate that damned place from the face of the Earth. She don't even want to think in what they had done to force the new mutation of Ash's genetic code... For him to use earth-type powers in his escape attempt...

Then she looked at for her son. She didn't have time to take revenge. Her obligation now was to care for Ash. "I will be back, gentleman." She hissed.

======

Misty stood with her arms folded around her in a desperate attempt to keep warm. Her swimming costume (her captors had seen no need to give her a change of clothing) offered her no protection from the icy mountain wind that blew across the patio.

There was a rustle of leathery wings and Omega dropped to the ground before her, holding Ash. Misty gasped in horror when she saw the condition of her boyfriend. He was battered and bruised. He was trembling as if he had a fever and his eyes were glazed with pain and delirium.

Delilah Ketchum extended her hand to Misty, who cowered back with a childish sob of terror. Her first instinct was to say something like: 'Come with me, if you want to live,' but something told her that this would be very counter-productive. "Come on," she said at last, putting as much kindness into her voice as she could.

Misty shrank further back in instinctive fear. Delilah couldn't blame her. Hell, she was frightened of herself most days, so why shouldn't this innocent child be afraid of her? "Please come with me, Misty. I swear that I will not harm you in any way."

Uncertainly, Misty reached out and let Delilah take her hand. The winged woman tucked her under her right arm (Ash was under her left) and, suddenly, her feet were not touching the ground.

Slightly more slowly than usual (because of her passengers), Delilah rose into the sky. There was a sparkle of a Teleport, and then all three were gone.

======

Jessie looked through the window of their cabin, trying to find some order in her chaotic thoughts.

She, James, Mondo and Meowth had already looked at most of Project Omega files. She already knew what had happened.

Like or not, she had to admit the fact: Delilah Ketchum was her aunt, Delia Darkholme, a former Rocket agent of some renown. It also confirmed something that Jessie always suspected: Gibson was not her surname - her real name was... Jessica Darkholme.

Her mother, Diane Miyamoto, had been murdered by the order of Leader of Team Rocket at that time, the mysterious and sadistic Madame Boss. Her aunt had discovered and tried avenge her little sister; Her scheme was uncovered, and, as result, she was transformed into the living nightmare that was Agent Omega... a puppet monster in Madame Boss hands.

Team Rocket had destroyed her family.

"Jessie?" She turned. James was looking at her in his usual innocent puppy-dog way. "Are you okay?" He asked. 'That is the most stupid and imbecile question than I did in my life,' he thought.

"No, I am not." Jessie said in matter-of-factly tone, at same time that hugged herself.

"What are you going to do now?" he asked mournfully. For James, it was obvious that she would abandon Team Rocket. He had already decided that he would go with her and to hell with the consequences.

"Well, before anything else, I have a family gathering to attend."

"Huh?" That answer he didn't expected.

"I have to meet the Tw..." She stopped and smiled. "I have to meet Ash... my cousin." She sighed. "That is, if he and my aunt believe that I am their kin..."

Her partner just hugged her. He didn't see her eyes narrow in that familiar dangerous way. 'Team Rocket will pay for this,' she promised herself.

======

Two hours after departing the base of Sector Athena, a former Team Rocket agent and her two Pokémon Trainer companions were at the house in the suburbs of Goldenrod City. Delilah, who still maintained her armour and her familiar "human" face, was putting cold compresses on Ash's forehead. He still shook with fever.

"What is wrong with Ash, Mrs. Ketchum?" Misty finally had the courage to ask. She just couldn't understand this woman. One moment, she was the kind, maternal figure that Misty had known for four years, taking every step to keep her son safe. Then, without warning, like she were Ms. Hyde to a Dr. Jekyll, she became a living weapon, able and eager to destroy absolutely everything that stood before her and her goals.

"Ash is suffering from withdrawal syndrome, Misty," Delilah reported, before giving Ash another gentle dose of Soft-boiled.

"How come?" For all that Misty knew, abstinence syndrome was something that alcoholics suffer when they try stop of drinking all of sudden...

"During his stay at Sector Athena, Ash was kept under near-continual sedation," Delilah said with a sigh. "They probably didn't intend it, but they needed to use such high dosages of the drugs to overcome his immune system that he became addicted to them. Now his body is trying to deal with the sudden absence of those chemicals in his system." The mutant woman sighed when she noticed Misty's confusion. "To stop his healing factor, they filled him with imunosupressor drugs, like those used on people having organ transplants. At the same time, they injected essentially toxic amounts of hallucinogenic drugs. As Ash's body could not fight against the drugs, his body adapted to them. Then to continue the confusing effect, they increased the amount of hallucinogens, creating a declining spiral of dependency. Now, without those drugs, Ash's immune system is trying to reverse the adaptation." Delilah kindly removed a fringe of black hair that had fallen over her son's eyes.

Ash opened his glazed eyes. "Mom..." he whispered.

"Shhh, Ash. You have to rest."

"Forgive me. I'm sorry..."

'For what, for God's sake?' Delilah thought. "Ash, don't worry. Rest."

Ash couldn't restrain his feelings of guilt. "But.. mom... I betrayed you. I told them about the AO-X..."

"Ash..."

"But they would hurt Misty... They said that would rape her..."

The orange-haired Trainer was horrified. Delilah understood everything on the spot. That damned General of the Sector Athena had attacked her son's most vulnerable part, his heart, through his strongest feeling, his love for Misty. Ash didn't have a chance of resisting such methods.

"Misty, could you leave us alone for a moment? Please?" The mutant woman asked.

Misty didn't make a habit of refusing a request from a woman who could kill her with a small gesture. "Sure," she said.

Delilah looked in the eyes of her only child. "Ash... everything is ok."

"But... Mom ... I..."

She gently put a finger in his lips. "It was not your fault, Ash. Don't blame yourself for that. Please." She pleaded. He seemed lost. He didn't know what to do. "Ash, you can cry."

"What?"

"I said that you can cry." Delilah explained.

For a minute, he hesitated in confusion. Then, he hugged his mother hard, leaning his head on her shoulder, and cried. Delilah hugged her son kindly, rocking him gently. From her back, two wings, like those of a Pidgeot, appeared, covering the young Trainer, as if protecting him.

From the door, Misty thought that the impression given was of an angel comforting a beloved, innocent soul. Moreover, in a certain way, that was what was happening.

* * *

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	13. Capture at Goldenrod City

The Omega Mutation  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter :-D

* * *

Chapter 13 - Capture at Goldenrod City

In his office in the Team Rocket base at Black Island, Giovanni personally investigated where Delia... Omega was hiding. His agents could be very good at research, but they didn't know how their prey thought.

He knew.

He had already been informed on the attack by Omega on Sector Athena's Base two days ago. Obviously, that was where the fools were keeping Omega's offspring prisoner. And since she had already recovered her son (a reasonable idea since she didn't attack again), it was most probable that she would remain hidden for some time until she felt it was safe to move again.

The big question: Where?

She would want an isolated place, perhaps a house in the outskirts of some big city. She would want a house in the center of an area that was easy to protect and allowed her to keep watch for potential enemies. Perhaps a place that had been derelict for some time. That would avoid suspicions (and it would be easier to afford; after all, in her civil life, Omega was not rich). Most importantly, she would have acquired the property shortly after the Venonat G3 satellite detected her. She had no reason to need an alternative hideout before that time. Delia was a conservative thinker, and she would not take the risk of buying a retreat unless she was sure that she needed it.

In the Kanto Region there were not a lot of properties that matched those characteristics.

Analysing the land sales that had happened from the incident that the satellite had registered, a name jumped immediately to his eyes.

He had to laugh. It was so... obvious!

======

While Tracey was checking the monolithic Pokéball racks that contained the many Pokémon caught by the Trainers of Pallet Town, Professor Samuel Oak walked to and fro. He was trying to decide what to do next. In his right hand he held a black-and-white Master-type Pokéball. That had been the Pokéball that had captured Omega, when she invaded his laboratory.

He remembered that night thirteen years ago perfectly. A noise coming from the laboratory had awoken him in the middle of the night. He went down to investigate and suddenly a... being jumped on him, seizing him by the neck. The shine of the glowing green slitted eyes paralysed him. However, before Omega could demand that the researcher help her, she cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain and cradling her belly as if there were something there that she wanted to protect...

The only thing that Oak could think that this was some new species of Pokémon, and one that clearly was in pain from some injury or illness. The only thing for him was capture that "Pokémon" in a special Pokéball that he was evaluating on behalf of the Sliph Corporation of Saffron City. When he examined his newest Pokémon with his equipment, he discovered that its genes, although a fearful mix of hundreds of species, were primarily human... and that she was pregnant...

"My God, what I do?" he had asked the empty laboratory.

After hearing Delia Darkholme's story, he decided to help her. Partly it was out of pity for the terrible fate that had come upon this woman. However, for the most part it was out a sense of guilt. Team Rocket could not have achieved this transformation of a human into a part-Ditto part-human killing machine without the data produced by the Pokémon Genome Project from United Nations, a project that, as chief co-ordinator, had let him make his name in the field of Pokémon Biology.

Now, he was not sure if he had done the right thing in helping that strange, pitiful and terrifying creature.

Oak looked at the Master Ball again. He had never checked, but he was fairly sure that the ID Transponder from the ball was still inside Delilah somewhere. If he wanted to, he was sure he could recall her to the ball like any other Pokémon. Not that he would ever do something like that. Unless he had no other choice, and it was possible that the time might come, soon, when he had to make that decision. He was watching as the TV news reported the events of the last few days. The UNDF had denied it of course, but everyone knew that something had completely destroyed dozens of military bases throughout the Orange Archipelago and the Johto Region.

You didn't need to be a genius to know who was responsible.

He knew that Delilah was desperate to find Ash. He also knew that nothing could stop Omega in that objective. He also knew that the more desperate Delilah became, the more that the 'personality' of Omega, created by Team Rocket's behavioural experts to be the perfect killer, would come to the fore. As soon as Delilah found Ash, Sam was sure that she would regain control of herself. However, if she could not find him. or if he was already dead... Then only God knew what Omega was capable of and who would suffer because of it...

Oak knew her weakness. A phone call for UNDF was enough to stop Omega's rampage. But doing so would condemn Delilah and Ash to death, or worse to slavery... "What I do?" Oak collapsed into a chair, feeling every of his 58 years.

What Professor Oak didn't notice was that someone was watching him from the second floor mezzanine.

Delilah closed her eyes with a sigh. 'Everybody that I touch... ends up suffering,' she thought, biting her lip. Then she shook her head and went to the room where Ash was staying until their family home was repaired. There she found Pikachu and Chikorita.

When the Pokémon saw their Trainer's mother, they leapt to their feet in excitement.

[Mrs. Ketchum!] Pikachu blurted.

[You come back!] Chikorita cried out, just as surprised.

"Yes, I returned," she replied. "I've come to take you back to Ash!"

Delilah didn't need to say anything else. The two Pokémon leapt into her arms without hesitation. Delilah extruded a vine whip to grab Ash's Pokébelt (carrying Charizard, Totodile, Noctowl and Cyndaquil). Then she concentrated, blurred like a bad TV picture and teleported away...

======

Misty entered in the room, carrying a tray with a snack for Ash. She found him, looking at his wrists. "Is there anything wrong, Ash?"

"Nothing at all, it's just a strange itching in my wrists." He shrugged.

Misty sat down in the bed and looked at her boyfriend. Although he still looked like he had been run over by a bulldozer, he seemed stronger than he was when Mrs. Ketchum freed them. The advantages of an evolved healing factor, she couldn't avoid thinking. She stood up, forgetting an empty glass sitting on the bed. As she got up, it over balanced.

"Hey, Misty!" Ash caught the glass and, in the moment that he stretched out his arm, a jet of sticky cord shot out of his wrist and stuck to her back.

Misty gasped in shock. The cord resembled a bug-type Pokémon's String Shot attack. Ash grimaced. "I'm sorry, Misty," he said at last. "Mom said that my body is still trying to get its' equilibrium back. I keep on waking up with new organs! I was burping Weezing poison gas most of last night!" Ash leaned forward to try and pull his webbing from his girlfriend's back. However, some reaction made the spinnerets on his wrist retract the webbing. Misty stumbled backwards and fell on top of Ash. The two of them were face-to-face, their lips very, very close to touching. Ash and Misty were paralysed by surprise and some other... feelings. They just lay there, staring into each other's eyes.

That was how Delilah found them when she was materialised in the room. She smiled wryly as she observed the strange tableaux. "I think arrived at exactly the wrong moment..." she commented with a dry chuckle. Ash went bright red, like an emergency light, in embarrassment, as did Misty.

Eventually, Delilah had to use a Muk's acids to dissolve the steel-like cord connecting Ash and Misty. After the two teenagers were untangled, Delilah took the orange-haired girl aside. 'Uh oh...' Misty thought, getting ready for a sermon.

Instead of that, Delilah gave her a cell-phone and said: "Call your father."

"WHAT?" Delilah repeated the request. "Um... Mrs. Ketchum? You do know that my father works for the UNDF, don't you?"

"Yes, I know. Please, Misty, it is really very important that you speak to him now."

Couldn't she ask something easier, like... capturing the Unown, for example? "But... Ash and I were prisoners of UNDF! I mean, my father with certainty knew..." Misty wasn't sure that she knew what she was trying to say.

"No, Misty. He didn't know about that." Delilah said in a tone of certainty that surprised Misty.

"But... how can you be sure?"

The mutant woman turned her head and she didn't answer. A chill went up the young trainer's spine when she realised that Ash's mother had probably asked him. Probably most forcefully. "Just call your father, Misty. The phone has the number stored on it."

The girl looked at the woman for a while, before pressing 'Call'. After a few moments, a man's voice, tired and surprised, answered. "Hello?"

"D-dad?"

"Misty? My God, where are you? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I am." She was surprised with the intensity of his concern. "I... I can't say where I am Dad."

"Why not?"

"Well... I..."

Delilah covered the phone with the cold hand. "Tell him that you want to meet him tonight in Rosalind Franklin Park in Vermilion City."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Trust me." Misty did what she was told and ended the call.

"Mrs. Ketchum... do you know what are you doing?"

Delilah cocked her head like a curious bird. "I hope so," she said after a disturbingly long silence.

======

That afternoon, Pikachu and Chikorita were the first Pokémon to help a human to train to use Pokémon-like abilities.

"Then, Ash, extend your arm to the front, with the palm of the hand upward." Delilah explained. "Take aim in the direction of the object and curl your forefinger into the palm of your hand." Ash bit his lip in concentration and executed his mother's instructions. The glands (that seemed a permanent fixture now) spat a jet of Spinarak web that struck an old vase that Delilah had selected as a practice target and stuck to its' side, still attached to his wrist at the other end.

"Nice shot," Delilah said in a quiet, unhappy tone of voice. She hated the fact that this had happened to her son. However, now that it had happened, she had to train him to use his abilities properly and keep them hidden from the rest of the world. "Now, concentrate on retracting the webbing back into your spinneret gland." Nothing happened. Delilah hummed thoughtfully. "Okay, let's try something else. Extend your forefinger again." Ash did as he was told and the webbing was retracted so quickly that the vase was thrown towards him. Pikachu and Chikorita barely got out of the way in time.

[Be careful!] Pikachu squeaked.

[We're not the targets, remember, Ashy?] Chikorita added loudly.

"Sorry, guys!" Ash said, a great droplet of sweat appearing at the side of his face.

Delilah smiled as she listened to the two Pokémon scold their Trainer. She stood up and started setting various objects on shelves and chairs scattered around the room. "I want you to keep practising, Ash," she instructed. "Concentrate especially on catching the object that you snare in your Spider Web attacks when you retract it. Remember that your senses are far more acute and your reaction times are far quicker than a human's are. Use this advantage to help you." Ash nodded mutely, not liking the implication that he wasn't human. Delilah smiled and kissed her son on the forehead. "I'll be back in a short while," she said. "Misty and I have to deal with some business first."

Ash watched his mother leave and then looked at his wrists, noting the congealed webbing in the small of his wrists. 'I bet Spider Man never had to go to this trouble,' he thought bleakly. He launched another Spider Web and, much to his annoyance, the webbing came loose from his spinneret and glued an old book to the wall. "I've got to figure out how to control this stuff," he snapped.

[You don't have to tell me that,] Pikachu replied.

======

That evening, a Dragonite dropped out of the sky over Rosalind Franklin Park, carrying a young redheaded Pokémon Trainer. The girl dismounted and looked around her without much enthusiasm. "Do you think he came?" she asked.

"I am sure that he came," the Dragonite replied before morphing into a tall blond woman wearing a long coat. Delilah looked to the east her eyes, which had many of the same adaptations as a Pidgeot's, power-zoomed and adapted to the twilight gloom. "Is that him standing by the lake?" she asked. "You specified that you would meet him there."

"Yes, that's him," Misty said, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. She turned around and saw that Delilah had moved away from her. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"I have to check some details regarding our return to Indigo." The mutant woman explained, forming dark glasses on her face. "Misty... I'm sorry."

"For what?" Delilah Ketchum didn't answer. She couldn't. She just walked away with a silent tread that would impress a Persian.

Misty swallowed dryly and started to walk towards the man that her super-powered associate had seen. She was surprised to see the burns on the man's face and neck, as well as the bruises that covered his face. As soon as the man heard her approach, he leapt to his feet. "M-Misty?" he asked, sounding more than a little afraid.

======

Meanwhile, a blonde woman awaited somebody in an alley. A white-haired and badly shaved man appeared. "Miss Koontz?"

"Yes. Are you Mr. Renner?" The blonde asked.

He nodded in confirmation. "Here is what you asked for," he said, giving her a package. "And my payment?"

Without saying a word, she gave a package of money. Satisfied, he turned to leave, when he asked. "How did you know about me?"

"We have a... common friend," she replied cryptically.

He shrugged and left. 'Miss Koontz' examined the package and confirmed that this was what she wanted. "This is satisfactory," she said to herself. "Now, I have another appointment." With a firm stride, she headed off to the west. There were arrangements that she had to make. She had to be sure that, should the worst come to the worst, her son would be safe.

======

"What happened, Misty?" General Kent Williams exclaimed to his daughter. "Your sisters said that you had just disappeared from the Gym!" After he had arrived back to his base the first thing that he did was call Daisy. His oldest daughter had sounded very confused as she explained that everyone in the Gym had blacked out for some reason and that, when they recovered, Misty was gone...

Misty sighed deeply. She was certain now that her father had nothing to do with her and Ash's abduction. Of course, she was already fairly sure thanks to what Mrs. Ketchum had told her. Now came the hard bit. She knew that her father was a loyal soldier and a good man who was proud of the work that the UNDF had done to unify the human race. However, it was her duty to give him the shock of his professional life. "Um... well, Dad, I don't know how to say this... But I was kidnapped by some of your comrades-in-arms."

"I beg your pardon?" Williams blurted to his daughter.

Misty told him what had happened as quickly and as clearly as she could. When she told him about the "Evil Twin", her father's expression became wary and alert. A woman who could pass as Misty's twin? He remembered that the day following the attack on Clearview Valley Base, Major Sandra Stormer, one of Jeffrey Straker's immediate subordinates, was found in the forest... with her face unrecognisable. Whoever had done it hadn't amputated the woman's face, but they had come close. The finest plastic surgeons were saying it would be months, possibly years, before her face even looked human again, let alone a passable double of his youngest daughter... Kent remembered how much Major Stormer's resemblance to Misty had disturbed him in the past.

Misty concluded her story. "And what had happened."

Williams licked his lips before continuing. "Misty, by any chance, this unit who arrested you and your... friend. Did their uniforms have a unit patch like the United Nations emblem only with an Greek statue instead of the world map?"

Misty blinked. "Yes," she said in a confused tone.

General Williams exploded. Now he understood everything. "Son of a...!" He was too upset even to complete that thought. "Then was that imbecile Straker that caused all of this! That stupid bastard has been competing with me since we were both junior officers! No wonder that Mrs. Ketchum thought that I was involved! He would love to frame me for one of his..." Williams suddenly closed his mouth. He had said too much.

Misty was leaning forward, her blue eyes bright with worry. "What? Was Mrs. Ketchum with you?" When her father didn't reply, she asked another question, one of more importance to her. "Did she hurt you?"

What now, General Einstein? Williams asked himself. "Well, let say that after your disappearance and that of your friend, Mrs. Ketchum became somewhat... upset. We had a meeting, and not a pleasant one. However we did come to an... er.... understanding..." He explained, unconsciously rubbing some of the bruises on his chest. Williams sucked in a deep breath. Now it was his turn to get confirmation of something that Mrs. Ketchum had said. "At the end of our... meeting, Mrs. Ketchum told me something, Misty. She said that... that... that you didn't hate me, but that you thought that I was angry with you. Is that true?"

Misty was silent for a moment. Her head was spinning with contradictory emotions. "Yes, Dad." She whispered. "It's true. I always thought you blamed me..." She hiccuped as tears began to stream down her cheeks, "for mom's death... I... always thought that..."

Kent Williams was pale. "Oh, God, Misty!" he said at last, his voice trembling. "I never blamed you for anything! And never for Rose's death! I thought you and your sisters blamed me for that! That you hated me for her death! For being. a coward that was never there when you needed me! For..." He began to cry, liberating an anguish that had been locked inside of him for too long.

"Dad..." Misty had started crying too. She collapsed into his arms and the two could only hug silently as their tears mixed together. 

After a few minutes, Misty managed to get back control of her voice and looked up into her father's eyes. "I have to go, Dad," she said. "Mrs. Ketchum is waiting for me. You aren't going to chase her are you?"

"No, with certainty not." 'I think I owe her that,' he added silently. "Honey, there is only one thing I have to know," he said. "If Ash hadn't been in danger, would she have gone on a rampage the way that she did? Would she ever hurt anyone?"

"She was so gentle before all this happened," Misty replied. "I can't imagine the Delilah Ketchum that I knew before hurting anyone." That was the only thing that she could say with certainty at this stage.

They said good-bye and went their separate ways. She, to go back to her boyfriend's side. He, to have a discussion with Jeffrey Straker, that demon that wore the uniform of an officer and a gentleman.

======

Misty and Delilah, in the form of a Dragonite, landed silently in front of the house in Goldenrod City. Misty dismounted and Delilah assumed her human form. "You are furious with me, aren't you?" Delilah said. It was really a statement rather than a question.

"I don't know what to think, Mrs. Ketchum! I can't believe that you thought..." Misty couldn't continue the sentence. She was furious with Delilah, she knew that much.

"I was wrong, Misty! I recognise that, but... please listen to me!" The mutant woman grabbed the girl by the arm. She felt a need to explain herself. "You have to understand that I wasn't thinking clearly. With Ash in danger, I could only think about saving him. Nothing else mattered. You can't hold anyone else responsible for this." Delilah released Misty's arm and sighed, wishing not for the first time that she could run her hand through her hair without feeling... weird. "Any mistake made was mine and mine alone," Delilah concluded.

Misty looked at her and was silent for a moment. "All right, Mrs. Ketchum," she replied at last. Then she turned and went in direction to the house.

"Did you talk with your father?"

"Yes." The girl said without turning. "But don't think that I thank you for that."

Delilah didn't say anything. She couldn't.

Delilah stood alone for a long time before her senses picked up something nearby. She frowned and lashed out with a vine whip. She looked at the Rattata with the camera strapped to its' back for a while, noting the red 'R' painted on the camera. Anger and fear boiled up and she tightened her grip, crushing the rodent-like normal-type to death in her coils. It seemed that her former colleagues had located her.

She strode into the room where Ash and Misty were talking, her face expressionless. "Time to leave," she snapped.

Misty shivered, seeing Delilah disappear once again, and seeing Omega take charge.

======

Some minutes later, Giovanni was informed that Omega knew that she was being watched. He was not alarmed. He had expected Delia to find out eventually. "Domino, put the plan in motion," he told his agent. "And Domino, I won't tolerate mistakes or your brand of 'initiative'. Omega must be captured alive. My order on her son is still in force. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" Domino said smartly.

Giovanni cut the connection and contacted Professor Ivy. "I understand that your method to capture Omega is flawless, my dear Madeleine?"

"Yes," Professor Ivy replied, clearly still feeling uncomfortable being in her white-and-grey Team Rocket uniform again. "Omega cannot escape from us this time."

"Good." He cut the connection, sat back in his semi-darkened office and waited.

======

About one hour later, three people arrived in Goldenrod City Central Train Station: a tall blond woman in a long black coat, a blond boy whose hair was in a ponytail and a girl with long black hair. A Pikachu was riding on the girl's shoulder while a Chikorita was running ahead of them.

"Mom, I feel ridiculous with this wig!", Ash murmured to Delilah.

"Ash, we needed a disguise to travel to Pallet Town." The mutant woman explained with a smile. "Besides, I think that you look far more handsome like this."

"To be honest, you are a better catch now than you are normally," Misty said with a giggle.

Pikachu and Chikorita started laughing.

"Misty..." Ash growled through clenched teeth.

While, Ash and Misty started a low-volume argument, Delilah's eyes scanned the interior of the train station. There was no sign of UN Defence Forces soldiers or Team Rocket agents. Delilah's plan was very simple: They would travel by train to Pallet Town. They would hide out in a house near Professor Oak's laboratories, at last until she could come up with a decent plan to end this chase once and for all. She was confident that the false identities that she had arranged would allow her son and his girlfriend to have a measure of a normal life. She sighed. At least, her stupidity had not hurt their relationship. She was enough honest to thank to God that.

Of course, the biggest continuing threat to Ash and Misty's happiness was her continued existence. Worse come to worse, Professor Oak had chemicals in his laboratory that would allow her to permanently remove that obstacle.

Sighing, she looked at the clock on the terminal walls. It was half an hour before the Goldenrod to Saffron express left the station. She didn't like being exposed like this, but they had no other choice. The fugitives sat down in the central lobby.

A stomach growled loudly and Misty and Delilah looked around in surprise at the source. Ash blushed.

Delilah barely managed to avoid laughing aloud. "I will get a snack for us," she promised. The mutant woman went to a kiosk where a middle-aged couple served the customers. Why did she have the sensation that knew them?

"Two... no, three cheese salad sandwiches and two glasses of orange juices, please." Ash was still a little weak - he needed food. Besides, she could subsist on dirt and solar energy for weeks thanks to the little bits of Oddish that Team Rocket had put in her.

"Sure... Omega."

"WHAT?!" Delilah was stunned.

The woman turned towards her and flung off her disguise revealing a familiar blonde-haired woman. "To infect the world with devastation."

The man threw off his disguise revealing a Team Rocket uniform and hair that was dyed leaf green for some reason. "To blight all people of every nation."

"To denounce the lies of truth and love."

"To extend our wrath to the stars above."

"Cassidy!" 

"Butch!"

"Team Rocket! Circling Earth at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or lose the fight!"

Delilah got over her shock enough to start laughing, making Butch and Cassidy look at each other nervously. They must be mad! She had already shown these imbeciles that attempting to take her by surprise was nearly impossible! An open assault like this would indicate that they were insane or just suicidal!

Several smoke bombs exploded throughout the station, creating a stampede of panicking would-be passengers. At least thirty Rocket Agents abseiled down for the glass roof, releasing several fully evolved Pokémon, especially Charizards and Typhlosions.

Omega, now in full battle mode, launched herself from the cover of the smoke. Hyper-beams and water gun blasts shot in every direction, sending Team Rocket agents and Pokémon tumbling end-over end.

Immediately Ash and Misty released their Pokémon and ordered them into the battle.

Omega was furious. She couldn't believe that Team Rocket would do something like this when there were so many innocents around who could be injured. She was so focussed that she didn't see Butch and Cassidy sneak forward, carrying rifles.

"Don't even think about it!" Ash yelled, throwing a String Shot that snatched the rifles from the surprised agents' hands. And Ash pointed forwards. "Pikachu, Thunderbolt attack!"

A helicopter with the Team Rocket sigil painted on the side flew low over the station. A hatch on the underside opened up and dozens of Voltorbs dropped out. "Use Explode attack!" Domino ordered from inside the helicopter.

Omega teleported most of the electric/steel-type Pokmon outside of the station. However, she grabbed two, intending to use them to blow the Team Rocket helicopter out of the sky. She launched herself into the air on Dragonite's wings. As she ascended, she saw that the helicopter had launched several rotating metal rings.

Omega immediately recognised them from Ash's report of Lawrence III's insane attempt to capture the Legendary Birds. Suddenly the rings swept towards her and surrounded her like a cage. The rings began to emit a powerful electromagnetic field that polarised every molecule in Omega's body, holding her rigid. As Delilah struggled to free herself, the rings carried their victim back towards the helicopter.

"MOM!" Ash screamed. Before he could think what he should do, several Team Rocket Skiplooms cruised overhead, shedding Stun Spores. Everyone in the station was knocked out immediately.

Omega, now feeling as rigid as stone, was dragged aboard the helicopter. She watched helplessly as Domino walked forwards. "You don't have a Togepi to save you now," Domino said with an evil grin. She fastened a red plastic collar with inlaid circuitry around Delilah's neck. "Pleasant dreams, Omega," Domino said as the mutant woman slid into an electronically commanded sleep state.

As soon as she was sure that her mission objective was secure, Domino turned to her grinning pilot and mimed wiping the sweat from her brow. "Let's get out of here before our luck runs out," she commanded.

======

Ash snapped awake, instantly alert. Around him, the other people were recovering more slowly. "What happened, Ash?" Misty asked groggily.

He was trying to figure this out himself. Then everything came back: The attack by Team Rocket! And Team Rocket capturing his mother. "Misty, come on," he hissed. Misty looked up in confusion but allowed her boyfriend to lift her to her feet. Ash strode away, a confused Misty, Pikachu and Chikorita following close behind. He had to get to Pallet Town. Then he had to figure out what was his next move.

Whatever that was he swore that he would rescue his mother... whatever the cost.

======

While Ash and Misty made their exit from the stage of the preceding events, a brunette was eagerly talking to a blond man with a video camera. "Did you record everything?" she asked urgently.

"Everything! You bet!" the man responded.

"Did you record that blue thing that was fighting against Team Rocket?"

"Yes, I recorded it!"

"Then, let's go!" ordered Michelle Crossridge, star reporter of the Indigo News Network. "We've got a news special to broadcast." The woman was already dreaming of accepting the International Pulitzer Prize. She had the scoop of the century... No! She had the scoop of the millennium!

======

Delilah Ketchum, or better, Agent Omega of Team Rocket, opened her eyes. She was floating in a clear grey liquid. Several tubes and wires were connected to her body. The mutant woman tried to move, but nothing happened. It was as if something had shut down all her motor nerves.

Then she felt the all-too-familiar weight around her neck. It was something that she had prayed that she would never feel again. It was a Team Rocket control necklace. How could this have happened? Then she remembered the battle at the train station. 'Oh God, Ash, please be okay,' she prayed devoutly.

Then she noticed that someone was watching her. Her confusion and fear gave way for a mortal rage: she knew that "person" (and she used the term lacking anything more accurate) far too well!

The person was a violet-haired woman a little shorter than Delilah was, with narrow dark eyes. She was the one who had transformed Delilah in the monster in that she was now: the top geneticist in Team Rocket, Professor Madeleine Beryl Ivy.

Professor Ivy gave a step forward and she looked at directly at her greatest creation. "And so the prodigal daughter returns... Welcome back, Agent Omega."

* * *

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	14. The Return of the Agent

The Omega Mutation  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter :-D

* * *

Chapter 14 - The Return of the Agent

Some minutes after the attack at the train station, two youths had got a room in Goldenrod City's Pokémon Center. According their Pokdex, they were David Witwer and Demi Wyman, from Vermilion City.

The first thing that David Witwer (alias Ash Ketchum) did was call Professor Samuel Oak on the videophone. Ash knew that he was taking a risk: the phone line could be bugged, or by Team Rocket or by the UNDF (and he wasn't sure which was worse).

"Come on, Tracey! Answer it!" he hissed at the dark screen. Behind him, Misty looked him apprehensively. Ash had always been a little impatient, but now he was aggressive...

A dark-haired young man with a lab coat appeared in the screen and he answered formally.

"Pallet Town Pokémon Research Center, Researcher-Assistant Tracey Sketchitt speaking," he said, tired.

"Tracey, it's me!"

The Pokémon Watcher was very tired, what explained why he not recognised the blond boy with a Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Who are you?" he asked confused.

"It's me! Ash!"

"A...ASH?"

"ASH?!" an older voice exclaimed. In the following instant, the image on the screen was changed to that of a grey-haired and incredulous face of Professor Samuel Oak. "MISTY? Where are you? What happened? Where is Delilah?"

Due to the borderline-toxic amount of adrenaline still running in his bloodstream, Ash needed all his willpower to not yell at the man that had helped his mother for all these years to shut up. "Professor, Misty and I are fine, but we needed you to send us Charizard and Dragonair to Goldenrod's Pokémon Centre." The Pokémon Researcher felt a cold shiver race down his the spine as he gazed into the young Trainer's eyes. His usually gentle and friendly eyes now had had a cold and aggressive shine. In many ways, it was similar to the cold, emotionless gaze of Omega... He left his nightmarish daydreams, when Ash told him: "... but you will have to disguise the user's IDs so they are recorded as the Pokémon of David Witwer and Demi Wyman."

"Who are they?"

Ash just pointed to himself and Misty.

"Oh! I understand!" Oak murmured to himself (although, truth told he didn't). "I'll need the ID code of your Pokédex if I am to disguise the Pokéballs' ID codes."

Ash slotted his false Pokédex in the data reader.

"But Ash... what happened?"

"Team Rocket captured my mother," he said, the direct simplicity of his words carrying none of the horror that he felt at this turn of events.

"My God!" Sam Oak knew that that was the worst thing than could have happened: Team Rocket not just had their perfect weapon back, as Oak was sure that Delilah would lose her sanity, coming back to be the Agent Omega... An electronic tone rang out.

"Well, I have received the data, Ash. I should send your Pokémon within the hour."

"One hour?!"

"I need that time to reconfigure the registry of the Pokéballs."

"Very well," Ash hung up without any other parting words.

When he put the phone on the hook, Samuel Oak noticed that his hands are shaking.

== == ==

Meanwhile, a military HMVVR jeep stopped with screech of tires, in front of the United Nations Defence Forces Headquarters for the Kanto region. From it jumped a black-haired man in the uniform of a General. A black-haired woman, Captain Katherine Pryde, and two men, Major Thomas Quaid and Lieutenant Robert Logan quickly followed General Kent Williams out of the vehicle. They were the military officers who Williams trusted the most. And trust was something necessary for this mission.

In front of the building, Generals Mercedes Heisenberg and Kenshin Mitsuragi awaited Williams' arrival. The oriental man noticed immediately that his comrade-in-arms was in a deadly serious mood. "What's going on, Kent?"

Williams didn't bother to answer. He just asked: "Is Straker there?"

"Yes, he is finishing his report to the General Secretary and the Security Council."

Williams and his group swept past them without anyone saying anything else. After a moment of confusion, the commanding officers of the Orange Islands and Johto region UNDF followed them. They caught up just as they boarded an elevator.

"Kent, what the hell is going on?!" General Heisenberg exclaimed, when she saw the group of soldiers pulling out their weapons and ensuring that they were ready for use.

"What is happening, Mercedes, is that I am going to arrest Straker."

Mitsuragi immediately pressed the emergency button that stopped the elevator. "Williams, have you gone mad?"

"No, Kenshin. I am perfectly sane," The general decided that he owed the other man an explanation of some sort. Even his own people, Williams noticed, wanted more details. "Before everything, I have to warn you to keep what I am about to say secret." Everybody agreed with a nod. Williams knew that could trust them. "Mercedes, do you remember that you told us that being that attacked you said that its son was in our power?"

Mercedes Heisenberg nodded mutely. She had those moments in the Hall of Fame of the Orange League seared forever in her memory.

"Well, that was true."

"HUH??"

Kent Williams told them what he believed to be the truth, based on what Misty had told him, on his 'chat' with Delilah/Omega and in what he had discovered in the files of the Military Intelligence service in Kanto.

"Good. This is what I think that happened: Team Rocket kidnapped an inhabitant of Kanto and submitted this person to a treatment that transformed it into what they called 'Omega', the being, as you all know, that destroyed several facilities of UNDF recently. Cross-checking the files I have discovered that she probably also was the perpetrator of a series of attacks claimed by Team Rocket about fifteen or sixteen years ago. Well, I now suspect that those attacks stopped because Omega escaped from Team Rocket's control and fled for an unknown part of Indigo Island, where she lived under a false identity for all this time. During this time she somehow became mother to a son. Straker somehow discovered her identity and, as the imbecile could not let the opportunity to have the perfect weapon in his hands pass him by, he tried to use its only weak point: the love that she felt for her offspring. Straker kidnapped him, thinking that Omega would surrender, but instead of that, she went onto the offensive, destroying each base of UNDF that she found in her way. Finally, she found her son in the last base that she attacked, Clearview Valley base, Straker's base."

Captain Kitty Pryde looked at Williams with doubt. "But, General, how you can be sure..."

"How can I be sure that what I am saying is true? Good question. Because my main source was the girlfriend of Omega's son, kidnapped by Straker and freed by Omega. And if you are wondering if her information it is reliable, well, I can personally guarantee the veracity of her statements."

The officials absorbed this in silence. Lieutenant Logan commented: "Do you know, sir, that what will you do now can be considered a sort of small-scale mutiny?"

"I'm aware of that, Robert, but I believe that that is the only possible action. After all, several lives were lost because of Straker's foolhardy attempt to enslaving somebody that only wants to remain undisturbed to live her life in some quite corner of the region."

"Do you want help?" General Mitsuragi asked, after a long pause.

For the first time since his arrival at the base, Williams smiled. "I would become very upset if you didn't help me."

The emergency button was pressed again and the elevator began to rise. On the 26th floor, the doors opened up and Williams's group went in the direction of the satellite conference room. As soon as Jeffrey Straker walked out of the room, someone grabbed him by the left arm. He was quickly handcuffed and, when he looked up, it was down the barrel of his greatest rival's customised 50-calibre Desert Eagle semi-automatic pistol. "Major General Jeffrey Straker, under section 24, paragraph 15 of the UN Global Code of Justice, you are under arrest for the kidnapping and illegal imprisonment of Misty Elizabeth Williams and Ash Ethan Ketchum. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to have an attorney at law present at your questioning. Should you give up your right to silence, anything you say may be used against you in a court of law."

"Did you gone mad, Williams?" was all Straker could splutter.

"My dear Straker..." Misty's father commented, in a tone as cold as liquid helium, "You do not have the first idea what I am like when I get mad. Be very careful, or you might find out."

At that moment, a lieutenant ran into the room and stopped, petrified and confused by the scene that he found. "What do you want, Rollins?" Williams snapped, his gun not moving a millimetre from its' place pointing at Straker's right eyeball.

"There is something you should see on INN, sir," the young officer said urgently.

Captain Pryde turned a portable TV at the receptionist's desk and she heard Michelle Crossridge's voice. "INN is able to bring you this exclusive footage of a Team Rocket attack on the Goldenrod City magnet train station, where their forces were attacked by an incredible being, seemingly part human and part Pokémon!"

== == ==

Ash received the Pokéballs containing his Charizard and Misty's Dragonair at the very moment that INN began to play their exclusive footage. The boy's eyes narrowed as he looked at the image of his mother fighting against Team Rocket.

"Professor, we are on the way," Ash said slowly, before hanging up the phone again.

Within minutes, Ash and Misty were releasing their Pokémon outside the Pokémon Center.

"Charizard, fly to Pallet Town like you never flew in your life before!"

Two sonic booms echoed through Goldenrod City.

== == ==

Another person that saw the special bulletin was the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni Carpenter. Giovanni watched with interest. 'So, the world now knows about Omega,' he thought, looking at the now-darkened monitor screen. He briefly considered if this altered his plan. In the end, he decided that it did not. For now, he would continue with his strategy as he had originally planned. He began to caress his Persian. "Selina, would you like to see your old friend?" Selina the Persian gave her Trainer an odd look.

Some minutes later, the leader of Team Rocket was in the Main Laboratory of Project Omega. Domino and Prof. Ivy were there too. In the center of the room was the containment chamber, where Omega floated with her eyes closed.

"Congratulations on your fine performance, Domino," Giovanni said. The young blonde woman visibly preened herself. Giovanni shot her a sour look. "You will be glad to know that I have, therefore, decided to let you live. You are dismissed."

"Thank you, Boss," She replied, thankful that her employer didn't seem angry with her anymore. After her exit, Giovanni ordered that Ivy explain the control panel that governed the level of self-awareness and motor control that Omega possessed. After ensuring that he understood, Giovanni ordered the scientist to leave the laboratory.

"Giovanni," Ivy said nervously, "do you think that is wise? There has been a neurochemical drift in Omega's central nervous system and."

Giovanni's expression did not alter one micron. "Madeleine, go," he said levelly. Despite the lack of tone, Ivy realised that her employer wasn't interested in her opinion.

Professor Madeleine Ivy left the laboratory, feeling sick. She had caught the subtle glance that Giovanni had given to Omega. "He still likes her," the geneticist thought, wanting to be sick. "In spite of her to having tried to betray Team Rocket, despite the fact that she is little more than a biological robot, he still thinks in her as 'Delia'... And he still wants her."

After ensuring that there was nobody in the laboratory, he adjusted the controls carefully. Omega opened her serpent-like eyes. Although the woman's body remained as rigid as steel, there was suddenly awareness in those alien eyes. Now she was suddenly a talking head with a doll body.

Giovanni and Delilah looked each other in the eyes. "It is a pleasure see you again, Delia."

The mutant woman was confused. She didn't recognise the man with the slicked-back black-haired.

"Who are you?"

'I should have expected this. She hasn't seen me for a long time,' he thought. "Perhaps this helps," he said aloud, messing up his hair a little (the gelled hair look was one that he had only recently adopted).

"G-Giovanni?" Delia Darkholme's eyes bulged out in surprise. Honestly, he was the last person that she thought to see...

"Yes, Delia," Giovanni replied with smug smoothness. "It is good to know that you still recognise me after all these long years. I had feared that you might have forgotten me. Of course, I still remember you... very well."

"Well, you have changed a lot," Delia commented, trying to keep calm as she tried to process the presence of her erstwhile lover. Trying to cover her confusion, she looked around. "Where are your mother, Madam Boss? I would have thought that she would have been here to gloat, the bitch."

Giovanni thought that he should be angry at this description of his mother. Such a shame that he entirely agreed with Delia. "She died two years after your escape, Delia. Stroke."

"I'd offer my condolences, but I was always a lousy liar," Delia commented tartly. "If I could move, I'd be dancing a jig. As things stand, I'll just have to content myself with happy dreams." Much to Delia's disappointment, Giovanni didn't reply, except to widen that damninable, insufferable smirk of his. "And you? What are you doing here?"

"I just came to see you before your mission," Giovanni replied.

"Mission? It surprises me that you of all the people think that I would work for Team Rocket ever again!"

"I don't remember to have said that you had choice..." Giovanni replied, patting the control console.

Omega growled. "You were always the "company man" type!" Giovanni just shrugged. It was important to him that Delia think that he didn't care about her fate. "How did you find me in Goldenrod?"

The leader of Team Rocket laughed. "Delia, if you want to hide away from someone who you yourself introduced to the joys of J. R. R. Tolkein, then you should chose a different name than 'Arwen Elessar' for your assumed identity!"

Omega closed her eyes, realising her mistake. When she opened them, they had icy shine. Giovanni shifted nervously, suddenly remembering Ivy's reservations about this exercise. "What you did with Ash?" Delia said, her voice suddenly icy cold and deliberate, holding promises of unthinkable torment to come if she did not like the answer.

"Nothing," Giovanni replied, puzzled. Why should she believe that he had done anything to her spawn? "To my best knowledge, he is still in Goldenrod."

She didn't believe in him. "Giovanni, if you did some thing with him, I swear that..."

"Delia, why I would be interested in your son?" He interrupted her. "You are the asset that Team Rocket needs to continue towards its' objective."

Suddenly tiring of the conversation, and tiring of the ambiguous emotions that it provoked, Giovanni Carpenter pressed a button and the mind of Omega returned to that of a precise, emotionless, living weapon. He arranged the hair and left accompanied by his Persian.

In the silent and empty room, only Omega's sightless eyes saw the warning that appeared on the control console's monitor.

'SYSTEM ERROR 005 - CONTROL INTERFACE DISRUPTION  
'Control sequence error due to neurological pathway incompatibility. Control efficiency 98.5% +/- 1%   
'Press 'A' key to recalibrate control interface.  
'Recalibration not selected! WARNING! If recalibration does not begin in fifteen seconds, system will reset and assume current efficiency as 100%.  
'SYSTEM MESSAGE - CONTROL INTERFACE RESET - Control efficiency now reporting 100%, option to recalibrate no longer available.'

== == ==

In Pewter City, unaware of the events transpiring around the region, Brock Harrison was feeding his Pokémon with a special food supplement that he was developing, when he heard an voice calling him: "Brock! Come and see this!"

"What's up, dad?"

Flint Harrison pulled his older son into the sitting room of the Gym Leader's residence by the sleeve of the T-shirt. "Team Rocket have captured a mutant Pokmon! It is being reported in a special bulletin!"

When he entered in the living room, Brock found his siblings watching the well-known new anchorwoman Michelle Crossridge: "... the authorities still do not have information regarding the mystery being that was captured by Team Rocket..."

INN repeated some clips from the battle in the train station. Just for a moment, the face of Omega was clearly visible. It was enough. Brock's mouth went dry, his eyes bugged out (probably for the very first time in his life) and his legs became weak.

Brock turned to his father and spoke in a tone that allowed for no discussion. "Dad, keep the gym closed until I return. Keep Steel, Ruby and the other ones inside of house and always keep your Pokémon nearby."

Then Brock released his Stellix and jumped on top of it.

"But Brock... where are you going?"

"To Pallet Town!" the Gym Leader shouted out before leaving at full speed.

== == ==

Tracey watched while Professor Oak walked to and fro through the lab, running his hands through his hair in a demonstration of excess nervous energy.

"This can't happen, Tracey! It can't! Now, even if Delilah somehow manages to escape from Team Rocket, and I don't see how that will be possible, she won't ever have peace! And Ash neither! I mean... eventually somebody is going recognise her and." the researcher stopped his pacing and sighed.

Tracey was not particularly skilled in interpreting human emotional states. Even so he was certain about one thing: it was not just because of compassion for Delilah Ketchum that his mentor was concerned - there was something more...

"Professor, do you like her?"

"What?" Oak was distracted, and he was not sure if he had heard correctly.

"Do you love Mrs. Ketchum, don't you?"

A shocked Samuel Oak had to think hard to answer that question - especially because that this was been a question that he had never allowed himself to ask regarding the mutant woman. Suddenly, gas began to seep from the ventilation ducts. Before they could react, they were all sleeping...

Professor Oak awoke when someone threw a bucket of water into his face. Blinking he looked around him, trying to figure out what was going on. He and Tracey had been tied up and put on the couch in his office. In front of him stood a man with lavender-blue hair, a woman with long, bright red hair and a younger man with brown hair. A Meowth, unusually standing on its' hind legs, stood on his desk. The humans were all wearing white uniforms with a familiar blood red 'R' sigil. The woman and the lavender-blue-haired man were arguing. "James, that was your idea to wake up them?" the woman screeched loudly, looking close to apoplexy.

"Hey, it worked! Didn't it work?" the man replied in a whining tone of voice. "They are awake!"

"Meowth! Stop dis arguing and talk to dem!" the Meowth said as loudly as it could.

"Team Rocket!" Tracey and Samuel Oak exclaimed at the same time.

"What are you doing here? If you think that we are going help you, forget it!" Tracey declared.

Jessie put the bucket over the Pokémon Watcher's head. "No one talked to you, you Pokémon Voyeur!"

Tracey fumed angrily under the bucket. There was not a more offensive insult for a Pokémon watcher than to be called a "voyeur"... 

Jessie went back to the white-haired man and she asked in a low voice. "Well, Professor Oak, where is Mrs. Ketchum?"

"Now, that... You know very well that your organisation has captured her!"

"Oh no...!" Jessie murmured, placing her face in her hands. "They caught her, James..."

"Don't worry, Jessie." He tried to console her. "Perhaps we can free your aunt and..."

"AUNT?" Oak and Tracey shouted in unison. They didn't believe what they heard.

Jessie Darkholme was turned for them and spoke with an ironic formality. "Yes, my aunt. My name is Jessie Darkholme. Pleased to meet you."

== == ==

Giovanni looked at golden pocket clock that was on top of the desk his office. The time was almost 9:30pm. On the monitor on top of his table, he saw Omega. She was inside of the chamber, waiting his order. He activated the intercom. "Domino, begin the operation."

"Yes, Boss!" his agent's voice replied. The girl sounded eager. For reasons that Giovanni didn't want to think of, this made him angry.

In the monitor, Giovanni saw Omega exit the Chamber. The green black-slitted eyes had an inorganic shine. The gait was totally regular like that of a model... or of a robot. She looked at upward, at the same time that a door in the roof opened up. When she was completely illuminated for the moonshine, a pair of transparent blue wings left her back.

As she left for her mission in many years, Omega had really returned to being a robot without a will of her own... An agent of Team Rocket...

In his office, Giovanni swept the ornate golden carriage clock, a gift from his late mother, from his desk to the floor. The mechanism shattered and cogwheels and gears sprayed out in every direction. Giovanni looked at the mess in shock. "Now why.?" he said to no one in particular. "Why did I do that?"

== == ==

Jessie and James showed their hostages the files regarding Project Omega in an attempt to prove that they were telling them the truth. What they didn't know it was that someone, who possessed super-enhanced vision, was watching them from at distance.

"Damn, Team Rocket also caught Professor Oak and Tracey!" Ash hissed to the girl standing beside him. He was even angrier that the special security glass in the laboratory's windows stopped him from hearing what the villains were saying to their hostages.

Misty looked at Ash nervously. Since Goldenrod City, Ash's behaviour had changed subtly. He had become deliberate, cold and aggressive. It was almost as if part of the personality of Omega (and not of Delilah Ketchum - Misty still didn't think of the two as being really the same person) was activated when her boyfriend was nervous...

Misty spoke, trying to keep her voice level and calming, the way she would talk to her sisters' Gyarados when he got nervous. "Ash, go easy with them," she pleaded.

Ash blinked and turned to look at Misty, his eyes reflecting his anger and disbelief.

"Please!" She implored. 

Ash looked at Misty, Pikachu and Chikorita. All of them looked scared. 'Are they afraid of me?' He wondered with some surprise. It was only then that he noticed that he was not acting like himself. "Okay, Misty."

Minutes later, Pikachu approached slowly behind Jessie and James, ready to distract them with a Thundershock. Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice cried out. "Jessie! James! Behind you!" It was Mondo.

The pair of thieves turned on time to see Pikachu and managed to dodge his attack. Jessie and James released Arbok and Weezing. Mondo released his new Flareon. With the odds at three against one, the things could have been got difficult for the electric mouse. At that point, the glass skylight exploded inwards and Ash's Charizard used Sky Attack on it. Ash and Misty dropped from the giant dragon-type Pokémon and released Chikorita and Staryu.

However, as the battle progressed, it became terrifyingly clear that the genetic imperatives of Agent Omega dwelt also within her son. "Everyone, duck!" Ash shouted. Pikachu, Staryu and Chikorita ducked as ordered as a titanic white-blue blast of energy shot over their heads. The Hyper Beam blew Arbok, Weezing and Flareon in opposite directions and knocked them out. Before the three Rockets could react, a Spider Web attack spat from Ash's hand and tangled them up.

Jessie swallowed dryly as she watched the Twerp... no, she couldn't rightly call him that anymore... walk in her direction, his eyes completely emotionless. A strange light seemed to glow in his eyes, and the white-blue nimbus of earth-type power sparkled around his hands. Ash knelt beside Jessie. When he spoke, it was in a curiously friendly manner that reminded Jessie of some of the nastier psychopaths that populated the ranks of the elite 'Red' Rockets. "Where is my mother?" Ash asked.

Professor Oak feared the worst. Misty had just freed his arms and legs, so he leapt forwards before Ash lost his temper and did something drastic. "Ash, don't hurt her!" he called out. "She is your cousin!"

Shocked at this revelation, the Champion of the Global League turned for his mentor. Then everything went dark.

== == ==

What happened in the Burning Desert Solar Power Farm, one of the main power plants of Kanto Region Power & Light, responsible for a third of the electricity of Indigo, was only understood a long time after the event.

At 9:45pm, a winged form landed in a hill close to the plain where the 'farm' of solar arrays and transformers were arrayed. Using her super-enhanced senses, Omega scanned the entire area. Unsurprisingly (the area was a strategic target, after all), there was a substantial UNDF presence in the building. The mutant woman immediately began to plan her strategy.

Seconds later a Diglett popped out of the ground inside the perimeter fence and ran over into the shadow of one of the power plant's outbuildings. A man wearing the uniform of a KRP&L engineer walked past. The man turned when he heard a quiet, liquid sounding rustling behind him. To his shock and lasting horror, a patch of the road was rising up and becoming a blue, translucent liquid that quickly took on a human form... His form! He was now looking into an exact mirror image of his own face!

An icy smile crossed Omega's lips as she grabbed the terrified engineer by the throat, morphed her right hand into a likeness of one of a Kabutops' sabre-like forearms and raised it to impale him through the heart. "Please, God no!" the man was babbling. "I've got a wife... kids...!"

Omega really did hesitate at that moment, when she heard the man speak of his family. When she replied, she deliberately used her own voice. "No..." she said quietly. "You haven't done anything wrong." Suddenly, she jerked the man forwards and head-butted him hard, knocking him out.

Omega hid her victim in the shadows and strode past the door security into the main control building. She looked up, noting the catwalk that led to the main control center. As she did so, the plant director walked up, completely fooled by her disguise.

"You returned fast, Andrew." 'Andrew' simply smiled in a way that completely failed to look human. "Andrew?" the man asked, concerned. 

Omega transformed into her 'default' form and allowed a few seconds to pass as panic spread through the workers at the sight of the inhuman monster standing in their midst. Ever the show-woman, she grabbed the director and looked right into his eyes, her eyes shining green with malice. "Run away," she said. She didn't have to tell him twice. Within thirty-eight-point-two-five-five seconds (according to her perfect internal clock), the control area was completely empty of secondary targets. Her orders were to kill any person that stood in her way, but something was holding her back. It wasn't in Omega's nature to engage in introspection, so she just ignored the anomaly, filing it away for her debriefing. She turned back to her mission. Raising her hands, she unleashed a Thunder attack that shorted out all the controls in the area and cut off the supply of electricity from the plant.

The sudden loss of supply from the plant caused a domino effect, as the island's other plants were suddenly facing an overload as they tried to compensate for the loss. Automatic circuit breakers cut the plants out of the power grid before the overload could damage their generators. The whole island was blacked out.

Breaking the glass of the window with a Mega Punch, Omega jumped out of the control booth, and then 'surfed' down an ice ramp to the lower level. Several UNDF soldiers ran into the chamber. All were armed with powerful weapons. The mutant woman reformed her wings and waited for a few seconds to make it clear that the weapons were not affecting her. Then, calling on the electromagnetic powers of the Magnemite evolutionary chain, she tore the huge transformers from their concrete foundations and threw them at the soldiers. She then turned to continue her mission, neither knowing nor caring if the hapless troops had survived.

An infernal scream sounded. Her Sonic Boom attack blew out the wall of the building. Now, she saw the several square kilometres of solar arrays. Suddenly a fireball surrounded her. The kinetic power of the impact stunned her for a second before she realised that the UNDF were firing wire-guided missiles of some kind at her. Probably Dragon ATGW missiles.

Like a demonic Phoenix, Omega exploded out of the flames, completely unharmed. Quickly identifying the appropriate spot, she reached forwards and generated an Earthquake attack, which made the damaged buildings shudder and begin to collapse. Omega had no time to admire her work. She had to finish what she had begun. She transformed into an Onix and used Rock Slide to rip the solar arrays into useless bits of metal and plastic.

The soldiers only could watch the destruction, while they tried to save their lives.

After some time, Omega transformed back to her humanoid form and soared into the air on gelatinous blue wings. She fired off several Fire Blast attacks to finish the destruction of the power plant and then searched for survivors. Finding one, she swooped down.

Captain Taylor Young was trying to free himself from under a fallen concrete column, when he noticed that the terrorist mutant had landed and was walking in his direction. He was paralysed with fright.

Omega just let a DVD-ROM fall in front of him, offered the man an ironic salute and took to the skies again. As she flew back towards her home base, she noted another malfunction for her debriefing. For some reason, her eyes were producing... tears.

== == ==

While the Kanto region was blacked out, Ash, sitting in a pool of warm golden light provided by Pikachu's Flash attack, was trying to stop his head spinning. The files, on a laptop that Jessie, James, Mondo and Meowth had brought with them, had convinced Misty, Tracey and the Professor that what they were saying was the truth. He knew that it was important that he believed too, but it was so difficult. Jessie? His cousin? Part of his mind still didn't accept that.

Professor Oak had activated an auxiliary generator (powered by a group of tame Pikachu), when someone started hammering on the door to the laboratory. "Ash? It's me, Brock! Open the door!"

"Brock?" Ash exclaimed. What he was doing here?

"I'll get it," James offered. After nearly being killed by the Pokémon/monster Mark 2 that Ash seemed to have become, he was only too glad to get as far away from the intense boy as he could.

"James? What do you doing here?" Brock exclaimed when seeing who had opened the door. The Pewter City Gym Leader immediately reached for a Pokéball.

"Calm down, Brock! They didn't come to harm us!" Misty explained quickly.

"But..."

"Trust me," she said in a threatening tone. When Misty got impatient, mallets tended to appear in her hand, and Brock didn't want to spend time unconscious today.

"All right," Brock walked over to Ash looked directly at his friend. "Ash," he said, "the being that Team Rocket captured in Goldenrod City was your mother, Delilah, wasn't it?"

Ash jumped to his feet. "But, how...?"

"I recognised her in the video that INN were showing!"

Ash sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. The day was bringing too many shocks for his peace of mind. "Yes, Brock. It was my mother," he confirmed. He didn't see how he could deny that... 

What the Boulder Gym Leader said next left everybody in silence. "I understand. And I think that I know who transformed her into.." he sighed. "what she is now..."

* * *

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	15. The Dark Lady of Valencia Island

The Omega Mutation  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter :-D

* * *

Chapter 15 - The Dark Lady of Valencia Island

Omega returned to the laboratory where she had been created. After the sliding roof folded closed, she turned in the direction of her containment chamber. At that moment, a screen lit up. "You executed your mission perfectly, Omega. Congratulations." The leader of Team Rocket said in neutral tone.

The mutant woman turned her head sharply and replied mechanically. "I am glad that my performance met your expectations."

Giovanni looked into her lifeless, green serpent-like black-slitted eyes for one moment, before dismissed her. He had seen a strange shine... would be tears? In his dark office, he scratched his chin, thoughtfully.

======

"What did you say, Brock?" Ash Ketchum asked horrified, after a shocked silence.

"I said that know who transformed your mother in what she is now." The leader of the Pewter City Gym repeated, careful not to use the word "monster". Ash would be furious with that - he knew his friend well enough to know that.

The two girls in the group immediately grabbed Brock by the throat and started hurling demands at the startled man: "Who was that transformed my aunt into Omega?"

"Come on Brock, tell us!"

"Huh... Aunt?" Brock exclaimed, gaping at the red-haired Rocket in shock.

"Um... Brock, meet my cousin Jessie." That was something that Ash had never thought that he would ever say... "I'll explain later, okay? Now, please Brock. Tell us what you know about what happened to my mother."

The Boulder Gym Leader nodded and sat down in a chair. What he held inside of him had been hidden for two years... now he could tell what had discovered on that day in the Orange Islands... He placed his face in the hands and began to speak:

"Ash, you remember that while you were competing the Orange League, I was working with Professor Ivy, don't you?"

"Brock, what does that have to do with Ash's mother?" Misty asked in an irritated tone of voice. She had no idea why Brock had decided to talk about the famous Pokémon researcher who dumped him, much to his hilarious long-term trauma.

"I'm getting there, Misty." Brock replied with a deep sigh. "Well then, you know what a total mess her labs and offices were. Well, after I put the laboratory in order, I began to help her with her research. Soon after that incident involving the strange behaviour of Pokémon in connection with the abrupt changes of the weather, she asked me to store the data we collected in the computer. When I finished the service, for accident, I accessed an old file called GreekProg.pdf..." Closing his eyes, Brock Harrison remembered that perfectly day...

======

In the private office of the Director of the Orange Islands Pokémon Research Laboratory, Brock Harrison began to read the file and feeling sick, revolted. He didn't believe in what he was reading... if that was true, then...

"Have you finished yet, Brock?" a feminine voice asked.

The former Gym Leader looked up and saw his employer standing in the door of the office. He had enough presence of mind to close the file before she noticed he was reading it.

"Yes, Madeleine," he said (Professor Ivy insisted that he called her by her given name). He needed all his theatrical talent to answer her as casually as possible.

"Great. Shut down the computer and that will be all for today." Ivy slid inside of the office and walked behind his chair, placing her long hands on his shoulders. "Maybe we can take advantage of this early finish and spend a little time together?" she whispered sensually into his ear.

Brock resisted the sudden urge to throw the woman off of his back. Her touch, which previously excited him, now froze his blood. However, he was no fool and he knew that he had to continue to act naturally. "I'm sorry, Madeleine..." he said shaking his head. "Today has been very busy and..."

"All right," Ivy replied with a little disappointment in her tone. She patted Brock on the shoulders before walking away. "Maybe tomorrow?"

Brock turned off the computer and both had left the office.

That night, Brock paced back and forwards in his bedroom. His mind swirled like a hurricane. With his new knowledge, the memories of the intimate moments that he had passed with the Pokémon geneticist made him feel violently ill - Just thinking of her made him sick. But had he really seen what he thought that he had seen? He had to be sure.

Quietly, he left his bedroom and walked through the gloomy corridors to Professor Ivy's private office. The door was locked. Remembering an old political movie, he pulled out his Kanto Pokémon Breeders Association ID card and pushed it through the door to open the lock. Once inside the room, he turned the computer on. He typed Professor Ivy's personal password ("genome_queen" - that innocent expression had changed to have an entirely new and sinister meaning) and he located the file. He breathed deeply before opening the file.

Madeleine Beryl Ivy, geneticist trained at Celadon City Technical University, had co-ordinated for Team Rocket, under direct orders of the boss of the organisation, the Greek Alphabet Program. The project proposed to use genetic manipulation to create a half-human/half-Pokémon being combining the powers and endurance of the Pokémon with the intelligence and flexibility of a human. The result was a living weapon under the control of the terrorist organisation. The file explained each stage, each experiment upon human and Pokémon, experiments that the doctors working in the Nazi concentration camps would have performed if they knew the secrets of the double helix of DNA.

According to Ivy's notes all the "guinea pigs" died, sooner or later... Except one: Omega Unit 1A025, a female initially genetically altered solely with the polymorphic powers of a Ditto. According to the woman's attached biography, she had been an elite agent of Team Rocket who had gone rogue - no name given. The file continued showing the development of Omega's powers, describing the 'subject's growing list of lethal abilities in the way someone else would write a shopping list... "My God, something so powerful in Team Rocket hands?" Brock thought, terrified. According to the records, the Program was shut down when Omega died during a mission.

Brock tried to control his sense of panic.

Everything was there in black and white.

One of the most respected geneticists in the scientific community of the Pokémon Islands had performed experiments on human beings for Team Rocket. Madeleine Ivy played god to create the perfect biological weapon... for Team Rocket.

He only had a choice: he had to tell to the world the truth about her.

Brock inserted a DVD-r in the drive and began to copy the file.

"Well, well!" a cold voice said. "Look who has decided to play 'Boy Detective'."

Brock looked up to see taser stun-gun fire two electrodes on microfilament cables that stabbed into his chest. Before the kilovolts of electricity rendered him unconscious, Brock saw Professor Ivy's coldly sarcastic smile.

Brock woke up when his face was slapped. He noticed that he was at the beach behind the Laboratory, tied up and leaning against a wall. Before him, there was a violet-haired woman wearing only her lab-coat. In her surgical glove-covered hands, Professor Ivy held a pistol with silencer. The weapon was pointed unwaveringly at him.

"So, Brock!" Ivy said in an airy tone of voice. "It seems that you have found out about my time working for Team Rocket, haven't you?"

"How could you...?" He said weakly. He felt dizzy... Had she drugged him while he was unconscious?

"How could I work for them?" Ivy rolled her eyes in exasperation at Brock's naivete. "Money, of course... Not to mention the never-to-be-repeated opportunity to manipulate the human and Pokémon genomes without the idiotic interference of moral discussions and ethical committees." She smiled, and Brock saw how she actually was: an amoral, cold, manipulative and selfish person. The memories of the moments that had passed together now pained his soul, as a cancer destroyed the body.

Ivy interpreted his silence incorrectly. "Don't worry," she said, "I'm not going to kill you." She showed Brock her gun. "This is for self-defence only - in case you become... unreasonable." Brock swallowed dryly. Ivy's cold eyes showed that she was serious. She leaned over, moving close to his face. "After all, what evidence do you have? Nothing! I destroyed the disc and erased the file. Nobody will believe you if you tell them this absurd story."

Brock didn't believe that. Ivy knew she was in trouble and was trying to cover that with bluster. The Security Police would verify his claim. The League, reluctantly or not, would investigate that. Certainly, Professor Oak at least would check... "My word is worth as much as yours..." he murmured.

Ivy laughed, and she bent over in front of him. "I don't think so, dear." The scientist used the barrel of her pistol to move some of the hair out of Brock's eyes. "Who do you think the authorities will believe? The respectable and brilliant genetic engineer that won the Nobel Prize in 2057 or the simple local former gym leader who has always been known for his... shall we say 'emotional instability'?" Her smile gleamed like a knife in the darkness of the night. "It would be enough to say that I dumped you, that you couldn't accept that, and that you now want to take revenge. They would believe me because they would see that you are a total loser, worthy of pity."

Brock bit his lip to restrain a reply that would communicate his exact estimation of Professor Ivy, both as a person and as a scientist.

The gloved hand held his chin and Ivy looked straight into Brock's eyes. The woman's dark eyes seemed to lack any life or humanity. It was like looking into holes in her head. "However, if you do want to take the risk," she said quietly, "I would still advise against it. Think of your brothers and sisters."

"Don't dare touch them!" Brock shouted.

Ivy laughed scornfully. "Dare? Lover, what makes you think I have anything to lose? All I would have to do is make one or two phone-calls and... poof! They will disappear! Records will be altered and witnesses bribed. No one would bother to look for them. Perhaps, they might even be the test subjects for our. 'research projects'." Ivy's smile disappeared, substituted with a look of pure menace. "I put enough money in your pocket for an one-way passage to Kanto. If you are really intelligent, you will forget what you saw. Assuming that you really care about the fate of your family, of course."

The woman in the lab coat stood and, in a gesture of pure cruel bullying spite, kicked Brock's stomach, before yanking the knots on his ropes to untie him and walking away from him. When she was at twenty metres of him, she turned back and called out. "I'm sorry that our relationship finishes like this, dear Brock. But, well... That's life isn't it? You've got to take the good with the bad."

A humiliated Brock watched the woman walk away as he tried to get his breath back from the blow to his stomach.

======

Brock opened his eyes and saw himself again in Professor Oak's Lab. His listeners didn't say anything. Not even Pikachu and Chikorita made a noise. He continued his story.

"Well, I was disturbed... confused. I went back to Kanto and I ended up in Pallet Town. I was just beginning to despair, Ash, when your mother found me. I never told her my story. Instead, I stayed here until that you came back from the Orange League."

Ash Ketchum finally broke the long silence that greeted the conclusion of Brock's story.

"So, it was Professor Ivy..." Ash murmured, in an indecipherable tone. Misty felt a chill. Just for a moment, she had heard Omega in her boyfriend's voice.

"I can't believe it...! Madeleine Ivy... doing something like that." Samuel Oak shook his head in shock. She had been one of his best students in the doctorate course. He had noticed that she was ambitious, of course, but to do something like that in pursuit of wealth and knowledge?

Ash Ketchum sighed. "Sorry, Professor, but at this stage of the game, I don't doubt it for a second."

"But, I still don't understand why you didn't denounce her anyway!" Misty blurted out.

"Because I didn't have any evidence, Misty! Without that, nobody would believe in me!" Brock lowered his head, ashamed of himself, trying to excuse what he knew to be inexcusable... "And I was sure that if I denounced her, she would carry out her threat to my family... Besides, Omega was presumed dead..." he didn't complete the sentence.

"When you were actually, although not knowing it, living under the same roof with Omega itself." James' voice was calm, as if the lavender-haired man was discussing the weather.

Ash turned and walked away from his friends.

"Where are you going, Ash?" Tracey asked, confused at his reaction.

Without looking at his friends, he answered, before walking up the stairs. "After the flood of revelations that I have heard in the last two hours, I am going to lock myself in a room... until my head is clear enough for me to decide what to do next."

Jessie noticed the concern in Misty's expression. She was feeling the same thing that herself.

======

In that very instant, an emergency meeting was taking place at the headquarters of the United Nations Defence Forces. In the Maximum Security Room, the three Generals who commanded the Kanto Region's defence forces. On the other side, on the screen, the fifteen representatives of UN Security Council member countries and the General Secretary, Alexandra Faraday.

General Kenshin Mitsuragi thought that the virtual presence technology that allowed that kind of meeting was a good thing... because or else somebody here would be dead, with certainty. The representative of one of the fixed members of the Council said: 

"... and, besides leaving this mutant terrorist free, General Williams still decided to arrest the leader of Sector Athena, our antiterrorist arm, on an absurd accusation of kidnap..."

"Mr. Robertson, I want to make one thing abundantly clear!" Williams's temper had flared. "General Straker kidnapped two adolescents, submitted both to illegal interrogation techniques and..."

"And he discovered the only weakness of that monster... Who has since returned to Team Rocket and destroyed one of the main power plants on Indigo Island." The diplomat looked at Misty's father arrogantly. "I believe that you are letting your personal feelings distort your priorities, General."

While Kent Williams fought to control himself, a man with a lieutenant uniform entered the room. "What is it?"

"General, Team Rocket left a message during its' attack on the Power Farm!"

"Play it!" The General Secretary herself ordered.

The lieutenant placed the DVD-ROM that Omega had delivered in a player. On the screen appeared the image of a man sitting in an elegant chair, with his face hidden in the shadows and the voice distorted by computer, while he stroked a Persian. It was the leader of Team Rocket.

"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen responsible for the security of the Kanto Region." The image in the screen greeted them, with an ironic tone. "I believe that you noticed the power of our new weapon, Omega, when she kindly turned off the lights of Indigo Island. I believe that, in the 'light' of this demonstration, you will be sensible enough to consider my proposal very carefully. If in a forty eight hours period, you not cede the control of the whole Kanto Region to Team Rocket, Omega will destroy each city in Kanto, beginning with Viridian City." The mystery man paused, as if he was aware of the horrified reaction in the room to his ultimatum. "To facilitate your decision-making process, Omega will give some demonstrations of its' power during this period. Remember: you have forty-eight hours." The screen went dark.

The General Secretary immediately assumed the control of the situation. "General Williams, Heisenberg and Mitsuragi, you are authorised to declare State of Emergency for the entire region. Make everything that is possible to protect the civil population and the strategic points against..." she sought the right word. "Against that monster. Meanwhile, you should also stand by for more instructions from the Security Council."

"Yes, Madame General secretary!"

The connection with New York was cut.

The three generals immediately began to carry out their orders. A knot of fear appeared inside of Kent Williams - how he could keep Misty and her boyfriend out of this crossfire between Team Rocket and the Security Council?

General Mercedes Heisenberg had another concern: "I only hope that the Security Council knows what they will do..."

======

Two hours later, the discussion continued in the UN Security Council Room. The reason was Mr. Robertson's proposal.

"... Mrs. General Secretary, we have to be realistic - the previous attacks of Omega against the UNDF bases showed that the conventional methods are ineffective against it!" He said emphatically. "Our only option is to use the ultimate force against her..."

"You scare me, Mr. Robertson." Robert Sugihara, representative of Kanto Region, interrupted. "You intend to bombard an essentially civilian area with quantum weapons!"

The other representatives observed the discussion in silence: their main fear was that, after conquering Kanto, Team Rocket would use Omega against their nations...

"We don't have any other choice. I am sure that the only way to respond to the threat of force is with the use of even greater force. The attack submarine UNNS Kraken is on patrol near Kanto. She is carrying eight Counterpunch-NR cruise missiles, each equipped a 250-megatonne matter/antimatter annihilation warhead."

"You are insane!" an Asian-descended woman declared. "Even detonating one of those nightmares might render most of the region uninhabitable! The fallout would certainly destroy everything that Project Eden2 is trying to achieve!"

"Not exactly." Robertson said with a thin-lipped smile. "Outside of specific targets assigned by its' masters, Omega will only attack what seems to be a menace to it. We can attract it away from the population centres and then destroy it with one hammer-blow. Project Eden2 won't be affected in a serious way. Unlike what it will happen if we didn't destroy Omega now."

The discussion continued.

======

Williams turned to Heisenberg and asked: "And the Andromeda-Wildfire Medical Research Center?"

"It is already in Total Alert." It was in that institute that the United Nations performed its researches on Level-Five biological agents. Any attack against that complex and the worst diseases in the history of Mankind might escape and... Well, no one was going to think to closely about that!

"Goldenrod City Nuclear Fusion Power Plant is also under Total Alert." Mitsuragi informed.

"Great!" Williams has just talked with Jennifer Bristow, the chief of the Security Police, who was now was placing the civil population of the entire region in the State of Emergency. Over the top of his shoulder, he looked at to see if his colleagues were looking at him. Seeing that they were busy with other subjects, he dialled his daughter's cell-phone.

"Hi there! Ha! Fooled you, you're talking to a machine," Misty's cheerful recorded voice announced. "But don't hang up, machines need love too. If you want to leave me, that's Misty, a message, please do so after the bleep. I'll pick it up and get back to you. maybe." Maybe the battery was flat, or Misty hadn't turned it on today... Or maybe...

On that moment, the main screen ignited.

"General Williams!"

"Yes, General Secretary!"

Alexandra Faraday seemed to have aged twenty years. The woman breathed deeply before giving her order, emphasising carefully each word. "According to the unanimous decision of the Security Council, the Defence Forces in Kanto are authorised to use any force necessary against Omega. If all other means fail, you are authorised to use the ultimate sanction of nuclear or..." Faraday paused before continuing, "...or quantum weapons. The submarine UNNS Kraken is already in course for Indigo's East Coast." She sighed. "General Williams, it was resolved that you will have the final authority as to if and when the Kraken launches her missiles."

Williams' mouth dropped open. "M-me?"

"Yes, General, you. One of the representatives of the Council is going there, to aid you in that decision. You must not permit Omega to attack Viridian City or any other population center!"

"I understand, Madame General Secretary."

The communication ended. Williams could only close his tormented eyes.

======

Just some minutes later, Kanto officially entered a State of Emergency. The movements caused by this change were immediately communicated to the leader of Team Rocket. In his office, Giovanni allowed a small smile of satisfaction to grace his face.

"So, the Security Council decided to assume direct control of the region? Very well." He reclined in his chair. If they had declared the State of Emergency now, it meant that they had received his message at least 3 to 4 hours ago... Giovanni pressed a button, activating the screen of his computer. Accessing the system of the Project Omega's laboratories, he reviewed the missions already programmed in the mind of the mutant woman. Furthermore his agents had intercepted the load of AO-X originally destined for Sector Athena. This left the UNDF defenceless against Omega.

And, according to the reports of his spies, the offspring of Omega, Ash Ketchum was still at the Pallet Town Pokémon Research Center.

Everything was proceeding as he had foreseen. Giovanni smiled.

======

In Pallet Town, James has just turned the TV on to know more of the causes of the blackout - and also to do some thing while Ash thought alone. Suddenly the TV screen changed to a sky-blue test pattern with the UN seal in the center. Simultaneously, the speakers blasted out the most terrifying scream that anyone had ever heard, bringing everyone running over.

As the others joined James, the shocked young man had just absorbed the meaning of the words underneath the UN seal: EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM.

A grey-haired woman with a Security Police uniform with a notable likeness to Official Jenny appeared on the screen. The legend in the screen identified her as Jennifer Bristow, Supreme Commander of the Security Police. Something that no one had ever seen before graced the screen, a red triangle in the upper-left hand corner. It was the symbol for a Red Alert - a warning of an imminent or ongoing terrorist attack. The woman looked at some notes before addressing the camera. "With immediate effect, the UN Governing Council has declared a state of emergency for the entire Kanto region," Chief Jenny announced in a tired tone of voice. "Due to an imminent terrorist threat to the civilian population of Kanto, the Security Police have hereby declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew."

"It seems like Team Rocket has already made the first move," a voice behind them said quietly. Everyone turned and they saw the source of the voice: Ash.

Tracey noticed the calm expression of decision on both Ash and Pikachu's faces. "Where are you going, Ash?" he asked.

"To Valencia Island."

"What for?"

"I will free my mother from Team Rocket. As I imagine that neither Jessie, James or Mondo have any idea from where they are keeping her prisoner, I think my best chance of discovering that is to ask Professor Ivy."

The silence reigned for an instant.

"So? When are we going?" Jessie asked. From the surprised glances directed her way, Jessie felt the need to explain. "Hey, she is my aunt too! And even she wasn't, I won't let Team Rocket have their way with her after they have killed my mother!"

"When are we going, Jessie?" Ash asked with a cold smile. "Right now, of course."

* * *

What do you think? Read and Review! 

To be continued...


	16. The Final Showdown

The Omega Mutation  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter :-D

* * *

Chapter 16 - The Final Showdown

During the night, four winged forms, a Charizard, a Dragonite, a Crobat and a Fearow, landed close to the Orange Islands Pokémon Research Laboratory. From them, five people and three Pokémon dismounted: Ash (with Pikachu and Chikorita), Misty, Brock, Jessie and James (with Meowth). Quietly, they crept up to the fence that protected the complex. They saw a helicopter behind the building. There was certainly somebody 'at home.' James was about to cut the wire with pliers when Ash stopped him.

"What's wrong?" the blue-haired young man asked, surprised.

"Just this." The boy from Pallet Town threw a branch at the fence. The electricity immediately destroyed it.

"Meowth! Isn't it enough dat we get Thunderbolted by da Twoip's Pikachu all da time?" The feline Pokémon immediately shut up when he saw the upset looks he received from the rest of the group.

"It seems that Professor Ivy made some home improvements..." Ash said.

"My turn, Ash." Brock said, releasing his Geodude. "Geodude, use Dig to tunnel under the fence."

When the group emerged on the other side, Jessie asked, when seeing that Ash seemed to be smelling the air.

"What now?"

"There are two... no, three people inside of the building." He announced, surprising them. "Two of them are Cassidy and Butch, I remember the smell of Cassidy's cheap perfume... Butch always reeks of cigarettes, thanks to that forty-a-day habit of his. There is also somebody using a perfume with the smell of wood and violet..."

"It's Professor Ivy's perfume." Brock informed, but didn't give more details, even with the curious glances of his colleagues.

"Brock, do you know the layout of the laboratory well?" Misty asked.

"Of course!"

"Good, it's better we capture them fast because they are installing explosives in the building." Ash informed, surprising them, as soon as Brock finished explaining the interior of the laboratory. "Well, this is what we will do..."

Some minutes later, Prof. Ivy has just copied the last files to a DVD-ROM before turning off the computer. Now no file on the Project Omega was in that machine. "I should have erased these files a long time ago!", she thought, reprehending herself. But proud as she was, she had not convince herself to erase the records of her best and more powerful creation...

"Are you finished now?" a feminine voice asked.

The violet-haired woman lifted the eyes and saw Cassidy's cold eyes.

"Yes, I'm finished."

"Great, now let's go!"

'Who does that idiot think that she was to give me orders?' The geneticist thought angrily. Even so, she obeyed. "Where is your partner?" she asked.

"Butch is finishing placing the explosive charges." Cassidy answered.

What the terrorist didn't know was that on that exact moment Butch was trying defend himself from a Smokescreen Attack from James's Weezing. He had got a Pokéball when he was struck by a Thundershock from Ash's Pikachu, leaving him unconscious. Naturally, he didn't answer Cassidy's summons on through his walkie-talkie.

"Butch! Answer me, Butch!" Cassidy called him impatiently. "Did you already finish installing the charges?"

Noticing that something was wrong, the terrorist ordered that Ivy stayed in the office and she went until where was Butch, releasing her Raticate on the way. She opened the door that took until the basement of the building.

"Butch!" she yelled to the dark enclosure, but she didn't hear any answer.

She tried turn on the light but the switch didn't seem to work. Holding her gun, she slowly went down the stairway. When she was in the half of the descent, something seized her weapon, pulling it from her hands. Cassidy gasped in instinctive fear and turned towards her Raticate...

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

"Starmie, Hydro-Pump!"

"Raticate, Agility!" Cassidy ordered, but it was too much late: the combined attack knocked out the Normal Pokémon. Then from the middle of the darkness, a Meowth attacked her with its' Fury Swipes. The terrorist and Pokémon that attacked her fell downstairs. Immediately, Cassidy felt that was entangled by Vine Whips before two persons tied her and placed her near somebody also tied.

"Meowth, are you Ok?" a woman's voice asked. Cassidy knew that voice well too much...

"Of course I am!" The Pokémon answered. A talking Meowth? Then it had to be...

The basement's lights were turned on. It revealed the situation in that she and Butch were: their arms and legs were tied with insulation tape, and they were without their Pokémon and without their weapons. They were watched by five people: Ash Ketchum, Misty Williams, Brock Harrsion, Jessie Gibson (or rather, Darkholme) and James Morgan. Cassidy immediately turned to her most hated rival:

"Your traitor! Wait until the Boss finds out about this!"

The redhead walked over sensually and leaned forward to look into Cassidy's burning, hate-filled eyes from as close as she could get. She spoke in the coldest voice than the blond terrorist had heard from her. "Cassidy, dear, I don't give a damn for what the Boss knows and he doesn't!" Jessie then gagged Cassidy's mouth with insulating tape. "And now?"

"We will find Professor Ivy. Meowth, stay here and watch those two." Ash said.

"Meowth!" Meowth exclaimed angry. "Who do you think that you are to give me orders?"

"Meowth, do what he said!" Jessie and James ordered in stereo. The cat Pokémon sweatdropped and proceeded to sulk as the humans walked off.

The group went up the stairway in direction of the main offices. Brock had said that was the most probable local for the Team Rocket geneticist to stay. Ash knew that that was true because her perfume was more and more strong... Meanwhile, Professor Ivy noticed that the delay of Cassidy was not normal. She liberated a Marill, that immediately informed her that a team of people and Pokmon came in her direction. The geneticist got ready for her "guests".

When the five Pokémon Trainers entered in the offices of Orange Islands Pokémon Research Labs, they were greeted by several Machamps ready for the fight. While they fought with the Pokémon, Ivy ran down the corridor leading to the courtyard and her helicopter. Butch and Cassidy's bad luck didn't affect her!

But Misty saw her escaping.

"Ash, Ivy is going away!"

"Ah, she won't escape!" Brock exclaimed. "Onyx, go after her!" He released the Rock Pokmon Snake, that began to pursue Ivy through the Laboratory. Ash and Brock went after the criminal geneticist, while Misty, Jessie and James defeated the rest of Machamps.

"Onyx, Dig attack!"

The Rock Pokémon immediately punched into the ground and, moments later exploded under Ivy's feet, before she arrived in the exit of the building. Ash threw from his wrists a jet of Spinarak's Web that grabbed the geneticist immediately, but he forgot about the web retraction; Ivy flew back towards the young heroes and they had to duck to avoid her as she soared through the air. There was a sickening 'crack' as Ivy hit a structural column head-on and was knocked senseless.

"Ash... how...?"

"I'll explain later, Brock. Now help me!" Ash said, lifting the violet-haired woman from where she had fallen.

It was some minutes before Ivy regained consciousness and found herself bound to a chair. Before her was the Champion of the Global League of this year and the son of Omega, Ash Ketchum. Having very few options, the woman immediately tried bluster. "Do you have any idea what you are doing? Do you know who I am?"

Ash smiled in a way that conveyed no warmth whatsoever. "I know who you are very well, Professor Ivy. You were who directed the experiment that transformed my mother in what she is now, into Omega."

"You can't prove that!"

Ash's cold expression didn't alter. "Yes, we can. Actually, the Pokémon League and the Security Police already know all about it." It was a bluff, but Ivy could not be sure of that. "But perhaps they could be persuaded to be a little more lenient in deciding your punishment if you say where my mother is."

Ivy laughed, hiding her fear behind defiance. "So, you want to sign my own imprisonment order? No, thank you. Besides, do you think that those bumbling bureaucrats and second-rate policemen could stand in the way of Team Rocket now?" She gave Ash a malicious smile. "Besides, this way I can take advantage again of your mother's 'special talents'."

Ash was confused for one moment, then he understood the implication of Ivy's smile. His face became red with rage. "You..."

Ivy laughed scornfully. "What did you expect? Considering the fame that your mother had in Team Rocket, it was natural that the more adventurous of them would take the opportunity to use her to have a little 'fun'..."

Ivy didn't have any notion of the danger she was in. That was the last tiny straw for Ash: he lost control. With a scream of rage his fists began to crackle with earth-type energy and the boy slammed his fist into the wall beside Ivy's head. The boy's fist went through the wall without even slowing down. Everybody was terrified; they could see that now the part of Omega in Ash had taken control of his actions.

"Ash!"

"Ash, stop it!"

"If you don't want that the same thing to happen to your head," Ash threatened without caring. "Tell me where my mother is!"

"Ash, no!"

"Control yourself!"

"Let me go!" Ash screamed at Brock and James as the two men tried to drag the boy away from the pale-faced and trembling Professor Ivy. Ash was too out-of-control to notice what was happening in the side room. Two Electabuzz materialised and generated Thunderwave attacks, creating a pulsating electrical barrier separating the young friends from Professor Ivy and the two Rockets guiding the Pokémon.

"Butch and Cassidy!"

"Exactly." The blonde woman affirmed as she and her partner cut the last of the ropes binding the geneticist to the chair. "Good-bye!"

The two Rocket agents and the scientist fled. While Ash, Misty and Brock fought against the two Electabuzz, Jessie and James ran after Butch, Cassidy and Ivy. When the former Rocket agents reached them, the fleeing trio was already in the helicopter, which was lifting into the air.

"Now, what you deserve, your traitors!" Cassidy screamed. The blonde woman jumped out of her seat and swung up the M60 machine gun mounted in one of the side doors and began to fire at Jessie and James. 7.62mm ammunition spat divots of dirt into the air as Cassidy 'walked' the machinegun across the yard towards her two most hated enemies. Jessie, acting on instinct, shoulder-charged James and knocked him aside just as the bullets reached their range. Six ugly, blood-red holes opened up in the front of her shirt, knocking her backwards and to the ground. "JESSIE! NO!" James screamed.

Ash, Misty and Brock ran out of the laboratory at the exact moment that Butch activated the demolition charges. The whole lab building blew apart, throwing everybody in the grounds of the building into the air. Cassidy gave a cry of glee at the scene. Today would be one that she would long remember with pleasure.

As the helicopter faded into the distance, Ash rose, shaking his head. He had recovered his senses. He looked around him: aside from the dust of the demolition and burned clothes his human friends were all well. Pikachu looked okay too, if a little dazed from the concussion of the explosion...

The situation of his cousin was totally different. James tried help her, but her injuries were fatal and no normal human aid could save her. Ash knew what he had to do.

"Hold her still, James," he said, pulling off his gloves.

"Be careful, Ash!" Misty understood what Ash was planning to do. Brock, for his part, didn't understand. What was Ash planning?

The boy from Pallet Town cradled his cousin's face in his hands. The veins in his face began to stand out. His white T-shirt began to be stained red from blood, at the same time the bullet holes in Jessie's chest closed up. When the last wound was healed, Ash collapsed, writhing in pain. Jessie, completely recovered, looked around herself in surprise.

Misty caught Ash as the boy collapsed and dropped to her knees, holding the frighteningly limp form to her chest. As Jessie, James and Meowth looked on, the wounds on Ash's chest began to heal as completely as if they had never happened...

======

As the Team Rocket helicopter returned to its base on Black Island, another helicopter approached the heliport on the roof of the UN Defense Forces headquarters in Viridian City. Awaiting its arrival, were Generals Williams and Heisenberg and an honour guard of soldiers.

"Who do you think the Security Council sent?" Heisenberg asked her colleague.

"I don't know," Williams replied. He silently begged the Powers that it not be Robertson! If that guy had to take the decision, Indigo Island would be Ground Zero!

The helicopter landed and from it exited a white-haired man, wearing a brown business suit. His face had the marks of cunning and of a lack of scruples that marked him as a professional politician...

Oh no...

Gerald Robertson walked over to the two Generals, wearing a superior smile. Heisenberg decided to take the initiative when she noticed the terrible mood of her comrade-in-arms.

"Welcome to Indigo, Mr. Robertson!" She yelled over the noise of the helicopter.

"Thank you, General Heisenberg, General Williams!"

The two generals and the representative of Security Council went down to the War Room. When they arrived, Robertson's first question was: "Was the UNNS Kraken contacted?"

Both generals noticed that he didn't ask about Omega or if the cities were being evacuated... "Like all of our missile subs, the Kraken was running deep under the polar ice pack." Heisenberg informed, after a moment of silence. "We sent an ULF radio message and we are waiting for her to come shallow to copy new operational orders through her main Sat Com mast."

'I need tell Misty and Ash!' Williams thought. 'But how?'

======

Meanwhile, in the deeps of the Arctic Ocean, an alarm sounded in the communication center of UNNS Kraken. Lieutenant Eric Ryan immediately transcribed the message and took it to Captain Damir Ramius. The young Lithuanian's eyes bulged out.

"Lieutenant Ryan, take us out from under the ice pack and have Navigation plot a high-speed course to our Pacific Ocean firing station." The submarine's first lieutenant nodded his understanding as Captain Ramius turned to a communications panel. "C-in-C, Captain," he said as he pressed a button. He continued without waiting for the Officer of the Deck's response. "Derek, take us shallow and prep the SSIXB mast. We are about to receive new operational orders." Unconsciously, so much the captain as his second-in-command took the hand until his chest, feeling the metallic key.

The key that launched the missiles armed with quantum weapons.

Sixteen hours to the deadline.

======

A helicopter landed at the Team Rocket base on Black Island. Butch and Cassidy accompanied Prof. Ivy down to the heavily-guarded laboratories of Project Omega. Their live weapon floated in the liquid of its containment chamber, its eyes shut. The two Black Rockets had not forget the humiliation that her son had inflicted on them on Valencia Island...

Cassidy went over to the console in a nearby booth that controlled the security cameras in the laboratories. With the skill of long practice, Cassidy set up a feedback loop that ensured the cameras simply showed an empty chamber; Now, no one would know what they were about to do... other than the participants. The two agents then went to a locked cabinet and took out vials of a green fluid - an inhibitor for the fear pheromones that Omega produced naturally. While they injected the inhibitor in their blood, Ivy looked at them in confusion.

"What are you two doing?" she asked neutrally.

"I am just going to discipline our rogue agent," Cassidy answered icily, "and also get a little payback for how her son treated us on Valencia Island. Now take her out of that overgrown pickling jar!"

Ivy considered the look in Cassidy's eyes for a moment before shrugging. What did she care anyway? Omega was nearly impossible to injure physically and any psychological damage was completely irrelevant given the fact that her conscious brain processes were completely overridden by the control necklace. Ivy pressed a few switches on a nearby control panel and a robot arm folded out, pulling Omega out of the containment chamber and depositing her on the floor in front of Butch and Cassidy. The mutant woman's blind eyes suddenly acquired the shine of awareness, even though her body could not move. Much to her confusion, she noticed that her pain sensory nerves were active. What was going on?

Butch and Cassidy ordered Ivy to leave the laboratory. After her departure, they walked over to Omega with sadistic smiles on their faces. Then Cassidy punched the face of the mutant woman with all her strength. Omega went down in a heap. The neural control necklace prevented her from reacting - she was defenseless.

Butch and Cassidy began to beat her, resolved to taking revenge for what she did with them in Pallet Town. After half hour of torture, Delilah Ketchum was face down on the ground, every part of her body in agonising pain.

Suddenly, her dulled senses snapped into full awareness when she noticed how Cassidy's hand was touching her back... it was a caress. The blond Rocket whispered in a surprisingly gentle tone: "You know, Mrs. Ketchum... for a 51 year-old mutant freak, your body is very beautiful... very beautiful."

Terror flared up in Delilah's mind. Yes, she knew very well what these two intended... they could not make that any clearer. A lonely tear ran down her cheek as she wished more than anything else that she could close her eyes.

======

Misty Williams had rested Ash's head in her lap. The boy was lying very still, his eyes closed. His body was still recovering from healing Jessie's gunshot wounds, besides the wounds that he had suffered himself. Due to the Omega Factor, Ash could tolerate that, but everything together was too much for him to deal with and stay conscious.

Meanwhile, Jessie, James and Brock watched the unconscious boy with their eyes bulging out in shock and amazement. Jessie, especially, continued examining her chest, poking her fingers through the blood-splattered holes in her shirt and still unable to believe that Ash had... Meowth, who had escaped the destruction of the laboratories through an air duct, couldn't understand why his colleagues were staring at Ash in such a strange way.

At that moment that Ash began to scream in a blood-freezing way and began to writhe crazily. It was as if he were being tortured!

"Ash, what is happening?" Misty cried out in fear.

Ash didn't reply. Instead, he lunged out of Misty's embrace and raced off through the wreckage of the laboratories, still screaming like a lost soul.

"ASH!"

"PIKA-PI!"

The four humans ran after him. Brock and James caught up with Ash in seconds, but when they grabbed his arms, the smaller boy threw them off in a superhuman demonstration of strength, more due to instinct than in any kind of conscious attempt to attack them. Misty and Jessie grabbed Pokéballs off of their belts, but it was not necessary: Ash's scream died in his throat and he collapsed.

"Has he fainted?" The redhead asked, confused. Behind her, James and Brock got up, with their bodies aching. For such a young person, Ash was very strong!

"No..." Misty murmured. She noticed what was happening. He was crying... The former Gym Leader slowly approached Ash and touched his shoulder. She was shocked at the expression of pain on her boyfriend's face. "Ash...?"

"They hurt her, Misty..."

"What do you mean?"

"Team Rocket hurt my mother." Then, once again, the combined price of the use of so much power, both offensive and regenerative, took their toll and Ash blacked out.

======

"What are you doing?" An angry woman's voice asked in a shriek.

Butch and Cassidy rose from Omega's fallen body, and they saw Domino whose face was pale with fury and disgust. Butch was terrified but his partner pulled herself up defiantly. "Just talking with our agent," Cassidy answered, without even a blink of remorse.

Domino looked at the sexual residues all over Omega's body and had to sternly control herself to stop herself from being sick. She grabbed Cassidy's uniform tunic from the floor and threw it at the half-naked blonde woman. "Get dressed and get out of here!" Domino ordered, her face twisted with disgust.

Cassidy laughed mockingly as she walked past the younger woman. "Jealous," she lisped sensually. "You only want to have your own 'quality time' with everyone's favourite freak don't you.?" At that point, Domino punched Cassidy hard in the gut and the older woman folded double. Butch grabbed his coughing and moaning partner and dragged her out of the laboratory.

As soon as the two Black Rockets were out of the chamber, Domino could release her tension. She dropped to a chair next to the eerily immobile Omega, shuddering. Only the nearly-hypnotic flow of fluids within the strange creature reassured the young woman that Butch and Cassidy's 'conversation' had not resulted in the destruction of the Organization's prize asset. Domino found it hard to believe that Butch and Cassidy had found the courage to... No, of course, that was wrong. Those two creatures had only dared to do this because they knew that their victim could not fight back. This was an act of cowardice, not courage. The only reason that Domino hadn't arrested them right now was that the Boss would ask why, and would probably also order Domino's arrest for her negligence when he found out what had been happening.

Domino noted that Omega was trying to get back to her feet. Feeling an empathy that she never expected to feel for what was, after all, essentially an organic weapon, Domino helped Omega to stand. There was no emotion in the creature's expression, but there was something in its eyes. Domino shook her head. "Wait here and I will return you to the containment chamber," she instructed. Omega nodded in a robot-like manner and came to a parade rest posture.

"I will probably have to increase the level of restorative chemicals in the chamber," another voice added. Domino whirled to see that Professor Ivy, had returned to the laboratory and was at the control panel of the containment chamber. With the speed and fluidity of long practice, the geneticist returned her creation to the containment chamber.

"Ivy, have you gone mad?" Domino shouted. "You must have known what those two were planning! How could you leave them to it?"

The scientist's answer was delivered in a defensive tone, although she clearly wasn't about to condone Butch and Cassidy's lowbrow attempt at revenge. "Well, I didn't really think it was important," she replied. "After all, she has performed that service for Madame Boss a number of times..."

"That doesn't matter!" Domino screamed, disturbed by the completely matter-of-fact tone the violet-haired woman was using. "Madame Boss has been dead for over a decade! If the current Boss discovers what you allowed to happen, we both could end up dead! Omega is Giovanni's own, personal tool and is to be used at his command and at no other time! Do you understand?"

Ivy shrugged; She clearly didn't care very much one way or the other. "Yes, Domino."

The terrorist breathed deeply, trying to restore her facade of professionalism; she could not show any weakness. "I don't know why he cares so much about this," she sighed.. "Omega is just a weapon, right? I don't know why he didn't want us to capture her son as well." And with that, Domino left the laboratory.

Ivy looked at her creation expressionlessly. She believed she knew why Giovanni didn't want to capture Ash Ketchum. Madame Boss had personally provided the sperm sample that was used to induce the pregnancy in Agent Omega that resulted in Ash Ketchum. The old woman had never told Ivy the donor, but Ivy had her suspicion of who it was... She wondered if Giovanni had wondered the same thing. Ivy looked at Omega again, thoughtfully and entertained herself by thinking what could be learnt from a proper examination of a second-generation Omega mutant...

======

It was the beginning of the afternoon in Viridian City. What was an already abnormal afternoon for 8 million people changed completely when a siren sounded throughout the entire city. All the people stopped to listen to it, confused and afraid. It was something that they would only expect to hear in case of natural disaster or war... something that they never really expect to hear in their lives...

It was the Evacuation Alarm of Kanto Region's civil defence agency.

They had fifteen hours to the deadline.

======

Ash Ketchum opened his eyes and looked around himself in confusion... Where was he? He shook his head. It was not the time to think about that! He had to save his mother! He tried to get up, but he was still very weak. He ended up falling off the bed and the resulting uproar summoned some company. The door of the room opened up and Pikachu, Chikorita, Misty and Professor Oak ran in.

"Ash, are you Ok?" Prof. Oak asked, while Misty, Chikorita and Pikachu all hugged Ash, who nearly asphyxiated as a result.

"Guys..." he gasped out. 

"Oh! Excuse me, Ash!" Misty exclaimed, releasing him from her death-grip hug.

"Air! Air good!" Ash asked as Professor Oak began to examine Ash's state. The boy shoved the old man aside and tried to stand. Professor Oak and Pikachu stopped him. "Let me go! I have to go save my mother!" he screamed.

"Ash, you can't help her if you aren't well!" Prof. Oak replied sternly.

"You don't understand, Professor!" Ash was visibly trembling. "Team Rocket is hurting my mother! They are beating her! They are..." Ash swallowed his nausea, unable to even find the words for the images that had appeared in his mind.

The researcher could not understand what was happening. He measured his words carefully. "How can you be sure of that, Ash? We still don't know..."

"I SAW IT!" Ash yelled, in a tone of despair. "I saw what they are doing to her!"

The room was in silence. Samuel Oak finally understood. The old man sat back. "Perhaps you did, at that lad," he replied at last. Many species of Pokémon had telepathic links between parent and child that lasted until adulthood, indeed some speculated that this naturally occurred in humans too, but seeing what was happening to the other?

Meanwhile, Brock, Jessie and James entered in the room, alerted by the noise. "How long was I sleeping?" Ash ground out.

"Twelve hours," Misty replied.

Ash couldn't believe it; he had lost twelve hours? "What happened?" His mind was a blank.

Misty told him everything that had happened in Valencia Island.

"I don't understand it!" Brock exclaimed. "I tied them with ten loops of duct tape!"

"They probably cut da tape with da scissors." Meowth answered.

"And where did they get a scissors?" Jessie snarled.

"In da drawer of the table that was in da basement," the cat-Pokmon replied, seeming a bit embarrassed.

"And how they could reach there when they were tied up?" Misty's tone was a honey-edged one of menace that made Brock remember why he lived in terror of redheads.

"Maybe Cassidy's Raticate recovered when Meowth went to get a snack and got them for her."

Before anyone else could reply, Jessie and James simultaneously pounded Meowth on the head with all their strength. "IDIOT!" Jessie roared. She pulled out a pair of Pokéballs. "I've had enough of you! Arbok, Seviper!"

Before Jessie could unleash her two snake-Pokémon to punish a cowering Meowth, Tracey entered and spoke in neutral tone. "Ash... I think you will want to answer this call this phone call."

The boy from Pallet Town walked into Professor's living room and saw who was on the screen of the videophone. He could not help being surprised. "Mr. Williams?"

Misty's surprise was no less. "Daddy?"

"Misty?" Then the man in the uniform of the UNDF shook his head and he looked at Ash. "Ash, something has happened that I must inform you. It is regarding your mother." He was practically breaking all the security laws of UNDF - enough to guarantee a court martial and life sentence - just for making this call. But he was a man first and he could not let what seemed inevitable just happen without first warning his daughter and her boyfriend...

"What happened?" Misty asked.

"Team Rocket sent an ultimatum to the United Nations: If United Nations do not surrender the control of the Kanto Region for them in the next three hours and fifteen minutes, Team Rocket will send Omega to destroy each city of the region, beginning with Viridian City."

A horrified silence greeted that terrible news.

"Meowth!..." Meowth murmured.

"That explains the evacuation alarm in Viridian..." Tracey commented.

"It gets worse," the general continued. "The Security Council gave clear instructions to stop your mother, Ash, at any price... Including the use of quantum weapons."

Now General Williams's listeners passed from horror to a state of total shock. Professor Oak finally recovered enough to reply. "Quantum weapons? Are you talking about the same type of weapon that the old USAF Space Command used to completely destroy that comet that threatened to hit the Earth back in 2042?"

"The same," Williams confirmed. "And they have been developed to an even greater destructive potential since."

Ash opened and closed his mouth in silence sometimes before he found his voice.

"But... General Williams... the only reason my mother is working for Team Rocket is because their Control Necklace! If she managed get rid of it..."

Williams looked at Ash with pity. "Ash, I understand that, but as member of the UN Defense Forces, I cannot risk the life of at least 8 million people. I just can't."

Ash understood the reason of the phone call. Misty's father was warning him to prepare for hearing of his mother's death. "Thank you for calling me, Mr. Williams."

"I'm sorry, Ash." The connection was ended.

"But... they can't do that! Can they?"

"Yes, they can, Tracey." Ash answered without taking his eyes from the now blank screen. "Remember that, from their point of view, it is the life of eight million people against one." He rose suddenly. "And that means that I have less than three hours to rescue my mother."

"But Ash, we don't know where she is." Misty protested. "How you will find her?"

"in the traditional way: looking for!" Ash snapped.

"Hey, wait an instant!" James exclaimed. "Now I remember! The ID code on the helicopter! It was for the Black Island base!"

"Of course!" Jessie exclaimed. "That is easily the most secure base the Organization has! The Boss must have had the project laboratories moved there!"

"Meowth! And you remember that only now, twelve hours later?" The cat Pokémon asked, but nobody paid attention to him.

"Then let's go!" And Ash was already running to the door when Jessie seized his arm.

"Slow down, Ash! You won't find the base without me and James. And even if you get in there, how do you intend to stop Omega for long enough to remove the control necklace?"

For that, Ash didn't have an answer.

"I think can help with that. Wait for me here." Oak murmured, feeling that now the time had arrived to see if what he had learned about the biology of Omega would not be in vain. He left the room for some minutes and returned with three objects in the hands.

"Ash, when I saw your mother for the first time, I thought that she was an unknown type of Pokémon, and a seriously ill one at that - therefore I captured her in this Pokéball. And I believe that she still had the ID-transponder inside of her." Oak gave the Master-type Pokéball to Ash. "If, IF, your mother is very weak, perhaps the Master Ball could contain her, but I can't say for sure if it will work." The researcher sighed. Then he handed over a great spray bottle, like a small fire extinguisher. "Delilah asked that I develop a tranquilliser strong enough to knock her out if she was out of control, due to compatibility problems with the similar of the Serum that I developed. This is it, but its effects are very short-term, and I don't believe that the disorientation that this cause will last a long time so long as the control necklace is delivering commands to her brain." Then he handed over, a vaccination pistol loaded with a red liquid. Just doing so made him feel a traitor. "This would be your last resort: this vaccination pistol is loaded with a dose of AO-X. The load is nearly a lethal dose, but isn't quite. Hopefully, it won't kill Delilah, but it will leave her in a very seriously weakened state."

"Thank you, Professor Oak." Ash understood the reasons the white-haired man had done this, but honestly he didn't know if he would have the courage to pull the trigger... He went back to Jessie.

"Do you know how we can get into in that base on Black Island?"

"Yes, I have an idea that can work."

Ash nodded. "Then let's go!" The five humans left for the Black Island. Professor Oak, Tracey, Mondo and Meowth exchanged glances. The only thing that they could be sure was that in three hours they would know the end of the story.

======

"Was Viridian City completely evacuated?" Williams asked.

"Yes, General!" A lieutenant answered. "The first evacuation transports should be arriving in Fuchsia City at this moment, sir."

"And about the neighbouring cities?"

"Pallet Town and Pewter City were also evacuated, but Celadon City's population is still being moved, sir."

He looked at again to the central screen of the War Room. Several concentric circles surrounded Viridian City. Other circles surrounded Celadon City, Fuchsia City, Vermilion City and Saffron City.

"Are the troops in their positions?"

"Yes, General."

"And the BrightEye?"

"The control codes have been transferred to our system, Kent." Heisenberg answered. "And it is being configured for a tight beam attack."

"Good!"

Williams' subordinate seemed to have her doubts. "Kent, are you sure of this? Even on the narrowest beam setting, the electromagnetic pulse will burn out every electronic system for a dozen miles in every direction..."

"I am aware of that, Mercedes. But you should remember that if we need to use the quantum bomb, the damage from an EMP will be the smallest of the problems facing us."

"Sure... but, Kent, who can guarantee that that will work against Omega?"

"I think that it deserves a chance, if it can avoid our having to use our final option." It was Ash's comment about the Control Necklace that inspired Williams to try a desperate alternative: to reach Omega with all the energy of the BrightEye Orbital Cannon. The BrightEye was a product of the United States of America's obsession with ballistic missile defense in the first decade of the 21st century. Basically a gigantic cluster of Tesla Coils mounted on a series of electromagnetic wave-guides that focussed their combined power into a single massive electrostatic discharge. The theory behind the weapon was that it could potentially disable hundreds of nuclear ballistic missile warheads while they were still far from their target. However, the weapon was never intended to be used on a target smaller than several dozen square kilometres. And no-one had ever planned turning it towards the Earth itself... However, Williams hoped that power that could have eliminated a Cold War first strike with a single shot could, if properly focussed, disable the TR control collar and allow Ash's mother to regain control of her own actions.

"Then, that is the plan is it, General? Hide Kanto's civilian population and strike at Omega with everything what we have, even knowing that that won't work?" asked a sardonic voice from the corner of the War Room.

Williams breathed in deeply, trying to calm down. "Mr. Robertson, considering the power of Omega, that is the only possible strategy. And we cannot take a risk the use of nuclear or quantum armaments in the Kanto Region unless it is really necessary." General Williams pointed for the central screen with the map of Indigo. "See! If Team Rocket attacks from the west, we will have freedom of action... they attack from the north, there are Pewter City and the Icy Mountains. At the south, Pallet Town and Cinnabar Island. But if Omega attacks from the east, we will have to consider the presence of Celadon, Cerulean, Vermilion and Saffron! A mistake can cost the lives of millions of people!"

The representative of Security Council didn't seem impressed with the possible catastrophe." More than the life of the possible victims of Omega?" he asked.

Williams didn't answer. He just continued to take care of his troops... and pray for a miracle.

======

A TR jeep travelled down a hidden highway in the forest. On it, a group of five people was in silence. The car stopped in front of a wall watched by a group of armed Dan'in.

"Halt! Identify yourself!"

The driver removed his cap and dark glasses, revealing lavender-coloured hair and green eyes. He calmly handed over a smart card to the lead guard. "I'm bringing new recruits," he said in a bored tone of voice.

The guard swiped the card through a reader and read James's retina with a laser-device that confirmed the man's identity as a White Rocket field agent. The guards opened the hidden door and the jeep entered in an underground tunnel. The three recruits on rear bench seat of the jeep stared around them at the tunnel and the gigantic underground garage with surprise.

"Incredible!" The girl in the back commented.

"Impressive, isn't it?" The woman beside James commented, winking at the girl. "Now you know why we boasted of being part of Team Rocket."

The trio of 'recruits' removed their dark glasses, revealing Ash, Misty and Brock, disguised as Team Rocket cadets. Ash threw aside a blanket, revealing Pikachu, who immediately jumped to his friend's shoulder.

"I can't believe that we got in here so easily!"

"Cassidy and Butch's arrogance helped us," James explained. "As they were sure that we were dead, they didn't think it necessary to cancel our access or even bother to tell anyone of our 'deaths'."

The five heroes began to walk stealthily through the corridors in direction of where the Project Omega's Laboratories should be. "I only hope that it is not too late..." Ash muttered to the invisible heavens. They had wasted a long time avoiding UNDF patrols! It was in that moment as the group walked around a blind corner, that they essentially collided with Butch and Cassidy. The two Black Rockets recognised their enemies at once, although they did have a little trouble in believing their eyes.

"Jessie!?" Cassidy asked venomously.

"The one and only!"

"James?" Butch, hardly the brightest light in the house, asked in confusion.

"That's right, Botch!"

"Pikachu, Thunderwave!" Ash ordered, and the paralysing attack put the two Rockets on the ground, before they could reach for their weapons.

"Ash, get going! We can take care of these two!" Jessie said to her cousin.

The boy from Pallet Town had to resist a desire to strangle Butch and Cassidy right away - he knew what they had done! - but he would take care of that later... Right now, he had to save his mother! "Okay!" He, Misty and Brock ran through the corridor.

"Now, your traitor..." Cassidy murmured, in an apoplexy of rage. The two Black Rockets grabbed Pokéballs. "Now, I will finish this once and for all!" She released a Sableye and Butch released his Primeape.

"Why you don't talk less, and fight more, dear?" Jessie asked with an ironic smile. "Go Wobbuffet!"

"Go Weezing!" James commanded.

"Sableye, use Shadow Ball!"

"Wobbuffet! Use Reflect!" The Reflect attack doubled the power of the whirling black sphere of ghost-type energy and flashed it right back at Sableye. The impact sent the unearthly ghost/dark-type tumbling backwards. Cassidy didn't care, of course. "Damn it! Get up Sableye and use Confuse Ray!"

"Primeape, use Low Kick!"

"Sludge attack, Weezing!" A jet of toxic chemicals spat into Primeape's eyes, blinding the fighting monkey for a few seconds, making its attack go wide by a comfortable margin.

While the fight continued, Ash, Misty and Brock arrived in front of a great metal door. An inscription in red letters said: Project Omega.

"It's here." Brock murmured.

"Shhh!" Ash hissed, putting his ear to the door. He heard the conversation that happened inside the chamber.

"Domino, is Omega ready?"

"Yes, Boss!"

"Then tell Professor Ivy to release it immediately for its mission!"

"Oh no!" Ash exclaimed.

======

The regenerative fluid was being pumped out of the chamber. Behind a protective pane glass, Domino smiled, imagining the victory of Team Rocket over the UN Defense Forces, when a Hyper Beam attack tore the armoured doors off their rails and tossed them across the room like they were made of paper. Three people in what looked like Team Rocket uniforms rushed in, accompanied by a Geodude, a Politoed, a huge Snorlax and a Pikachu. "What the...?" Domino exclaimed. Seeing the Pikachu, she suddenly realised that the younger male was Omega's son and she understood that he had come to rescue his mother. Well, he would not do it! "Go Electabuzz! Go Slugma!" she commanded, throwing two Pokéballs.

The electric fighter and the fire slug materialised in front of them.

"Ash, rescue your mother!" Brock yelled. "Misty and I will take care of them!"

For one moment, Ash was conflicted between helping his mother and helping his friends, but he saw that Brock was right. He ran over to the containment chamber.

"Geodude, use Mud Slap!" The gym leader from Pewter City, commanded, pointing at Electabuzz.

"Politoed, use Water Gun!" Misty commanded.

"Electabuzz, use Thunderpunch! Use Fire Blast, Slugma!" Brock and Misty were both ready. Geodude blocked the Electabuzz's electrical punch with a hand-full of mud, which went on to slap into the creature's eyes, throwing it end-over-end. The electric-type Pokémon stumbled back and struck a control panel, which began to spit sparks. Half the lights exploded and the others began to flicker dangerously. Politoed's Water Gun extinguished the flames belched out by Slugma, filling the center of the chamber with steam.

At that moment, Omega walked out the chamber, her head snapping from side to side as she quickly absorbed the tactical situation..

"Snorlax, put a Hyper Beam into that chamber!"

The huge bear-like earth-type Pokémon sucked in a breath to launch his attack, but then it was paralysed, able only to stare into the alien, brilliant black-slitted eyes of Omega. He simply couldn't move...

Ash noticed that besides Snorlax, Brock and Misty's Pokémon had also been frightened by his mother's alien nature. Even Domino's Pokémon seemed frozen for a moment. Ash understood what happened: Omega was using Terror to stop them.

"Snorlax, concentrate on my voice! Use Hyper Beam!"

Even before Ash's Pokémon could obey, he was struck in the center of the chest with a powerful Flame-thrower attack, nearly powerful enough to kill even the super-tough Snorlax.

Omega was programmed to destroy anything that stood in the way of her mission, which would normally be simple enough. However, this was not a normal situation. The semi-darkened, fog-filled conditions in the chamber were no real problem for the genetic fighting machine, but Ash, Brock and Misty were all wearing Team Rocket uniforms, making determining friend and foe essentially impossible. Omega's programming, in such situations, was to use non-lethal force to immobilise all combatants. She turned to face Ash, who was the nearest available combatant and, when she tried to launch an attack, a genetic imperative, far more deeply-implanted than any other, stopped her in her tracks. Omega glared at the boy, who stared back at her fearfully, and she noted that his aura was essentially identical to her own.

"Omega!" Giovanni's harsh voice echoed from an intercom panel, breaking the mutual paralysis. "Complete your mission!" Omega shook her head as if she were coming out of a trance and began to glow with power and suddenly emitted an Explosion attack that knocked everyone, hero and villain alike, away from her and hard against the walls of the laboratory chamber (wrecking it in the process). Then, she raised her hands to the roof and launched herself upwards, using a modified version of Dig to 'swim' upwards through half a mile of rock and to soar into the air.

The Explosion attack shook the base from top to bottom, knocking Jessie, James, Butch and Cassidy as they fought in the corridor. Butch jumped on top of James, and tried strangle the lavender-haired man. Before he could get far, Jessie's Arbok seized him in a Wrap attack and slammed his head against the floor, knocking him out.

"Thank you, Jessie!" The redhead just smiled.

That gave time enough for Cassidy to recover her sidearm. She pointed it at Jessie's head. "And now..." the blond terrorist said with a smile of anticipation.

"Jessie, get down!" James wailed. The redheaded young woman ducked, dodging Cassidy's shot. Then, Cassidy took a Sludge attack from James's Weezing in the face.

"What...?" Cassidy gasped before screaming as the poison-type acids began to eat into her flesh. Jessie completed the attack with a punch in the face of her long time rival. Cassidy went down like a felled tree. Jessie didn't stop for a celebration. She and James ran in the direction of the Project Omega laboratories.

Ash pushed his way out of the collapsed acoustic tile suspended ceiling and looked at the hole his mother had left in the rock during her hasty departure. In his mind's eye, he could see his mother soaring into the sky... on a route to destruction. With the help of Pikachu, he shifted the debris from on top of Misty and Brock, helping them to their feet.

Domino lay unconscious, buried under a combination of the destroyed ceiling and tangled in the ruins of Omega's containment chamber. Ivy, who had remained on the periphery and had emerged relatively unscathed, looked around herself at the ruins and ducked out of a side door. It would be easy enough to convince Giovanni that she was dead, then she could begin again using a new identity...

At that moment, Jessie and James charged into the laboratory. "What happened here?" James asked, stunned at the scale of the destruction in the chamber.

"My mother went in direction of Viridian City." Ash calmly reported as he injected Snorlax with a Max Revive and turned to his friends as his big bear-like friend staggered to his feet, looking a bit abashed at having been beaten so easily. Everybody understood what they would have to do and that knowledge terrified them all. Ash could feel that, even if his friends tried to hide it.

"If any of you don't want to come with me when I go after my mother, I would understand and I will not hold it against you," he announced. In his mind, it was the very least that he could do for his steadfast friends.

The temptation of accepting Ash's offer was strong. However, the bond of friendship and the knowledge of the consequences of inaction were stronger still. Jessie answered for everybody. She released her Fearow and asked "Where did you say that she went?"

Ash smiled.

======

Meanwhile, on Shamuti Island, an unprecedented meeting was taking place, one that represented the very natural order itself: the Legendary Birds Lugia, Ho-oh, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. They were in a semi-circle around two other beings, one that had existed from the beginning of the World and another that had been created by the human science.

Mewtwo spoke: You all know what is happening. You know that the Dark Guardian is about to destroy everything in front of her and that not even the Chosen One can stop her! The Birds exchanged glances, in doubt. Mewtwo growled. How could they possibly fail to understand something so utterly obvious! Mewtwo admitted the abilities of the Chosen One, who had already saved him twice, first from its own madness and pain and the second time of being a slave for the humans that created him again. But the Legendary Birds could not seriously believe that Ash Ketchum, even with the aid of his loyal Pokémon, could stand before the power of his mother! Could it be, Mewtwo asked, his telepathic voice dripping with scorn, that the mighty avatars of the natural order are afraid to face what a few lowly humans and their mortal Pokémon companions are willing to face?

Moltres answered Mewtwo's arrogant accusation of cowardice. "Yes, we are afraid of her."

Lugia firmly took charge. You are powerful but, in truth, you are ignorant of the power that the Dark One has gathered in his unwilling servant, the Titan of the Seas answered. She closed her eyes for an instant before continuing. Nonetheless, you are right: the Chosen One needs our help, and we should aid him in that moment of need.

Ho-oh, Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos agreed in silence.

Lugia opened her wings and rose into the night. Her flying companions followed her. Slowking watched as the legendary birds flew in direction of Indigo. He didn't know what it was happening, but he was sure that everything was about to change... for the better for worse.

======

In the vicinity of Celadon City, Omega emerged unscathed from the fireball caused by the detonation of several surface-to-air missiles had created around her in the night sky over Kanto. The fight had been enjoyable, but that was the moment to eliminate this destruction.

Omega rose a little higher into the air before diving down and unleashing a powerful Earthquake attack. The enormous shock-wave threw the hapless UNDF troops from their feet. All it took was a powerful Explosion attack followed by an omni-directional hail of Thunderbolts to sweep the last of the resistance aside.

Omega was a little disappointed that had eliminated those troops so easily: she expected a more little of resistance if only to keep her entertained. Additionally, the immediacy of battle would help her ignore the strange sense of disorientation that had haunted her since her departure from Black Island. It was all down to that juvenile human male with the aura so like her own.

Shrugging off her moment of distraction, Omega took to the skies and continued towards her objective. It was when she noticed that she was being followed: four flying Pokémon were racing in her direction - a Charizard, a Dragonair, a Crobat and a Fearow. Omega immediately identified the three of the five human riders to be the anomalous Rockets in the laboratory at the moment of her release. A dark, slightly serpentine smile curved the woman's lips. Whoever they were, they were clearly determined to stop her, and had the determination and the skill to make a decent attempt at it. Good! She could use the practice. Her smile dropped as, once again, her instincts immediately reached out to the rider of the Charizard and blocked her every attempt to even think of harming him.

Ash noticed immediately that Omega had turned to face them. "Are you ready?" Brock, Jessie and James nodded. Ash breathed in deeply. "NOW!"

Immediately, a Flame-thrower, a Hydro Pump and a pair of Hyper Beams shot towards Omega. The mutant woman raised a Light Screen defense around her and the attacks detonated against it, leaving her unharmed. Omega raised her head and laughed, a terrible, scornful laugh that frightened Ash more than anything else he had ever heard in his young life. Nonetheless, he knew that they had achieved their objective: Omega's whole attention was now focussed on them.

Omega was so focussed on fending off the elemental attacks from Charizard, Crobat and Fearow that she didn't see Misty, still riding on Dragonair, materialise close behind her, courtesy of Togepi's teleport. Light Screens do not stop physical objects, so Dragonair was able to slip through Omega's defences without effort. Misty raised the fire extinguisher and pressed the trigger. Omega, sensing a threat, turned just in time to get a blast of the specially-tailored tranquillising gas full in the face. Misty commanded Dragonair to flee before the mutant woman could respond.

Before losing her senses, the mutant woman tried to disperse the gas with a Whirlwind, but she had to open her Light Screen to do so. A Flame-thrower and a pair of Hyper Beams struck home, swatting her from the skies like a fly.

Omega, blazing like a meteorite, tumbled down through the sky towards storage tank #3 of the McAlester Chemical Plant near Vermilion City. The semi-conscious mutant woman tore through the thin metal as she fell and her blazing body ignited the hydrochloric acid inside. The resulting explosion destroyed everything for hundreds of yards in every direction. After a few moments, a smouldering Omega emerged from the firestorm, looking shaken and angry. Earth-type energy formed two spheres of light around her fists.

Everybody was frozen for one second before Omega suddenly joined the two spheres, creating a super-bright flash of light. Everyone was blinded for a second (especially Ash, who had been using his enhanced sight). When the effect faded, Omega was gone.

"Where is she?" James asked, looking at all the sides, trying find Omega in the darkness.

"She is still here." Ash murmured, still protecting the eyes with the right hand. "I can feel her presence."

"Where?"

"I don't know..." Ash's expression was apprehensive. "We will have to separate and search for her."

Everybody exchanged worried glances. They knew that Ash was right.

"But Ash... how will we stop her?" Misty asked, holding the now-empty gas bottle.

Ash shrugged, forlorn. Omega had already shrugged off the first of their three secret weapons, as well as unthinkable amounts of destructive energy. He didn't know if they could do anything to stop her, or even significantly slow her down.

Jessie, James and Brock went to the west side of the plant. Misty and Ash went to the east side.

In the shadows, a sadistic smile formed under a pair of green brilliant eyes that watched the heroes go their separate ways. The hunted had become the hunter. The annoying feeling in the depths of Omega's mind was now stronger.

======

"What happened, lieutenant?" Williams asked.

The lieutenant that took care of the line of external defense of Celadon City breathed deeply before answering. His head was bound with a bandage.

"Our defenses were totally destroyed, sir. That... that... monster continued to the west."

Williams closed his fists in despair. Team Rocket was not stupid. It had programmed Omega to take a route that went by several densely inhabited zones, limiting the options available to UNDF...

"Radar, what is the current position of Omega?"

The radar operator swallowed dryly. "Sir... we don't know... Omega disappeared from our radars soon after four flying objects approached her just as she was approaching the road in between Vermilion and Saffron Cities."

"Determine her position, Sergeant! Do whatever it takes!"

"Yes, sir!"

The black-haired man breathed deeply, trying put his thoughts in order. He was quickly running out of alternatives. "General Mitsuragi, prepare the BrightEye for firing."

"Yes, General Williams." The Asian man went to the control panel and transmitted the command.

Forty thousand miles above the surface of the Earth, a huge satellite, some three times longer than the old ISS space station was wide began to open like a huge metal flower. Fifteen 300-foot-long 'petals opened up to create an object that looked like a gigantic dandelion seed. The shaft of this giant 'seed' was a cluster of huge metal-and-crystal energy projectors, all directing their particle streams into one particularly large projector that pointed out into space like a huge needle. Bright blue-white light began to shine from the crystal as the whole enormous construction began to rotate around 180 degrees to point its' firing array at the very end of the shaft at the Kanto region. For the first time since its' operational tests, the BrightEye cannon prepared to fire. Kent Williams hoped that it went enough to stop Omega... but if it wasn't...

"UNNS Kraken? Come in, UNNS Kraken!"

"UNNS Kraken responding. Awaiting your orders, General!"

"Captain Ramius, this is UNDF Headquarters Kanto. Prepare to copy targeting instructions and your missile launch authorisation."

It was to his credit that the young submariner did not hesitate for a moment. "Yes, sir!"

Williams closed his eyes.

======

Jessie, James and Brock searched through a warehouse attached to the factory. The silence of the building was cut by their steps, until a metallic sound echoed from nowhere.

"What was that?!" James asked, his nerves jangling at their limit.

"Calm down!" Jessie hissed "I... I will check. Stay here." Jessie, with her Dustox fluttering along in front of her, walked into one of the corridors of the warehouse. Some moments later, she returned. "I didn't find anything."

"Well, let's go this way." Brock pointed to another corridor. When he and James turned their backs to Jessie, the fingers of her right hand changed to an array thirty centimetre-long razor blades.

"JAMES, BEHIND YOU!" A woman voice screamed. "Arbok, Wrap attack!"

"Jessie" looked at back and saw the real Jessie commanding her Arbok. The distraction gave Brock and James a chance to release their own Pokémon.

The Pokémon snake tried to hold the body of her master's double, but 'copy-Jessie' simply morphed out of the snake Pokémon's coils and jumped for the roof, metamorphosing back into Omega as she did so.

For one moment, the mutant woman was stunned. The disorientating feeling was completely disrupting her combat efficiency! She should have been able to end this long ago! With a hiss of anger, Omega tried to ignore the feeling; she had a mission to complete. Omega threw from her wrist a Vine Whip that grabbed Arbok, completely immobilising the Pokémon snake. Then, she electrocuted Arbok and threw it over James with great force. He didn't have time of dodge.

Ash immediately heard the sound of the fight. "Misty, they are in trouble!"

Both ran up to where their friends were.

"Onyx, Tackle!" Brock ordered.

Omega just smiled. She released an ember attack, which set off the automatic fire extinguishers in the hallway. The water wouldn't harm her, but it would make a rock/ground-type Pokémon far weaker.

An automatic fire door slammed down in front of Ash and Misty just as the two were about to reach their friends. They were shut outside as the battle continued within.

Omega jumped over Brock's head. As the dark-haired man span to face her, she kicked him back into a stack of barrels that collapsed down upon him. James was knocked out, bleeding from the head. Jessie, desperate and on the verge of hysteria, watched as Omega sauntered over to her. She lashed out with a punch to the face. Omega's hand blurred up and caught her fist effortlessly. "Not bad, dear." Omega said with a smile. "But, as my old tutor once said: 'Nearly is never enough'."

Omega flowed over Jessie's arm, and kicked her in the back with smashing force, yanking backwards to break the human female's arm as if it was a twig. Jessie's scream of agony echoed throughout the factory. The mutant smirked down at Jessie's pale face satisfied that the pain had incapacitated her opponent. The icy smile of satisfaction on Omega's face contrasted with the agony in her eyes.

On that moment, the fire door crumpled inwards as Ash's Pikachu struck it with his Iron Tail attack. Omega dropped Jessie, who fell to wet ground like a limp rag, and teleported away.

Ash and Misty ran in. "Pikachu, Chikorita! Help Brock!" Ash ordered, while he helped his cousin to get up. Misty held a handkerchief to James's head wound.

"Are you all ok?" Ash asked.

"I am, Ash. Go after your mother, I'll take care of James and Brock, " Jessie announced.

Ash looked down at the horrible unnatural angle of Jessie's right forearm, but realised that she was right. Reluctantly, he, Misty and Pikachu ran off, seeking their quarry.

Ash and Misty entered a metallic corridor when the boy from Pallet Town suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Misty." he whispered.

"Yes, Ash?"

"Take cover."

"What?"

"Take cover!" He turned suddenly, with his right arm outstretched. Misty dropped to the ground as a Hyper Beam shot over her head from Ash's outstretched arm and blasted into Omega's chest, blowing the mutant woman down the corridor and into a fire equipment cabinet, which shattered from the impact.

"Interesting." Omega remarked in a conversational tone as she staggered to her feet. "I almost felt that." Omega looked down and calmly directed an Aurora Beam into the structure of the corridor, coating everything with ice. Ash and Misty desperately tried to keep to their feet. Pikachu, who had long claws to act as ice cleats, unleashed his most powerful Thunder attack. Omega didn't even flinch. Instead, she raised her foot and delivered a Mega Kick, not at her opponents, but to the corridor floor.

The metallic corridor shattered and was revealed to be an inspection catwalk over something chemical and very-toxic looking. Ash, Misty and Pikachu would have dropped into the tank if Ash had not thrown his Spinarak's String Shot at the roof. He seized Misty and Pikachu and swung away towards the other side of the building. Ash dropped Misty and Pikachu onto the nearest platform before momentum carried him back towards his mother. Unnoticed by all, as Ash reached the limit of his swing, the AO-X injector fell from his belt.

Omega's eyes narrowed. She threw a Razor Leaf that cut Ash's Spinarak's Web. The boy fell and landed agilely on his feet. With a hiss of annoyance, Omega leapt from her vantage point and landed right in front of her opponent. She raised her fist for a Dynamic Punch attack and froze, unable to overcome the instinctive imperative that seemed to override even her deepest programming.

The boy from Pallet Town heard in his mind the voice of his mother, strangled and distant: Ash, run away!

'My mother is still there, but she can't beat the control of the necklace!' he thought.

Omega was frozen, trying to overcome her conflicting commands and instincts. Ash took the chance to use a Spider Web attack to immobilise his mother. Big mistake; Being under attack freed Omega from her paralysis. A flashing Cut attack sliced the web apart in mid air and Omega lashed out with a kick. In a blur of motion, far to fast to be human, Ash dodged his mother's assault and lashed out at his mother's knees with a low kick, trying to knock her feet out from under her. Omega somersaulted over the attack.

Misty got off the scaffold, while she watched the fight between Ash and Omega. Both were little more than indistinct blurs of motion. Ash was doing his best, but he was half-human and he didn't stand a chance against Omega in anything other than the shortest of fights. Misty knew that she had to do something, but what? At that point, she saw the AO-X injector. With a grim expression, the girl hung it on a belt loop and began to climb down to where her love and his mother fought.

With tears running down her alien face, Omega finally gained the upper hand, morphing around a punch to the face and grabbing Ash by the back of the head. She swung the boy around and slammed his face into an electrical junction box a few times. Then she raised her hand to deliver the deathblow... and stopped... once gain unable to override her instinctive need not to harm this being. With a strangled snarl of frustration, she swung Ash around again and slammed his back against the wall. Omega leaned forward and glared at her nemesis in a way that would terrify the Devil himself. "Who are you?" she bellowed. "Who are you? What are you? Speak and I swear that I will spare your life!"

Omega was so completely focussed on trying to solve this mystery that she failed to sense Misty until the girl jabbed the injector into the base of her head and pumped the AO-X solution into her body. The mutant woman screamed murderously with the pain and fell in the ground, the red infection of the toxin spreading quickly through her body. Misty, in shock, dropped the empty weapon.

Ash shook his head, his wits returning. He unholstered the Master-ball given to him by Professor Oak and thumbed the 'recall' touch pad. A ray of red light was spat out to Omega and surrounded the writhing mutant woman. The ID-transponder was still active. The woman dematerialised into a red glow, which was sucked into the Master-ball. There was a bleep and the 'active' indicator lit up on the status panel. Suddenly, the ball jerked and fell from Ash's hand, electricity crackling over it. The ball shook violently, rocking from side to side... and then exploded.

Omega materialised in the middle of the factory, like an infernal Phoenix. Her expression showed a paradoxical mix of pleasure and pain. "The end," she announced in a tone of utter finality.

Unable to directly harm her enemy, Omega turned to the great vats of chemicals and began to unleash a wave of Flame-thrower attacks at them. Ash covered Pikachu and Misty's bodies with his own as the vats detonated.

Like a blazing demon, Omega rose from the ruins of the factory. The pleasure of eliminating her enemies was nearly overwhelmed by a pain that she could not understand. Omega set a course for her first primary target, trying to shake the feeling off. However, even while she flew onward, the feeling continued... almost as a scream of anguish from the deepest part of her mind...

======

In his secret office, Giovanni watched a satellite image of the trajectory Omega was taking towards Viridian City... He tried to imagine what would be the reaction of UNDF to the small surprise that he had programmed...

======

Everybody in the War Room observed the tiny blip on the radar screen that was racing towards Viridian City at hypersonic speeds. Omega had destroyed each defence measure that UNDF had planned.

"Has her path been calculated?"

"Yes, General Williams."

"Is the BrightEye locked on target?"

The operator for the orbital canon was about to confirm when the radar operator called out. "General, the target has just changed course."

Williams froze for a moment before speaking. "What?" he asked. "Confirm that, sergeant!"

"Confirmed sir. Omega has changed course and is now heading away from Viridian City!"

"What is her new course, sergeant?"

"If it continues on this vector, it will arrive in Fuchsia City in twenty minutes." Fuchsia City was the place where Kanto's Governing Council had sent most of the civilian population of Indigo, in an attempt to protect them. The attack against Viridian City was just a decoy. 

"Mitsuragi, inform the defences of Fuchsia! Now!" Williams ordered. "Reconfigure the BrightEye targeting matrix!"

"Sir, the target is moving too fast! We can't get a lock on her! If we fire that thing now, it will burn a hundred-foot-deep trench across the countryside!"

The UNDF General absorbed that information, his face expressionless. "Heisenberg... Send the missile arming codes to the Kraken."

======

Meanwhile, Brock and James pulled away the wreckage from on top of Ash, Misty and Pikachu. They swallowed dryly in shock when seeing that an iron lever had punched through Ash's abdomen.

"Pika-pi!" Pikachu exclaimed in horror.

"Don't mind that." Ash simply yanked the lever out and his body and the hideous wound flowed closed almost instantly with an awfully-familiar ripple of gelatinous blue. Ash didn't seem to notice.

Misty had fainted due the shock and the smoke, but she was already recovering. "What...?" she asked weakly.

Ash looked around and saw several electric wires, that they were part of the structure of the now demolished chemical factory. He had a desperate idea. He ran and yanked the wires out of the wall.

"Where are you going Ash?" James asked as Ash released his Charizard.

"I think I can stop my mother! Stay here!" Ash grabbed Pikachu and vaulted onto Charizard's back. Without a word of command, the dragon launched himself into the air.

"Ash!" Misty called out, but he was fading into the distance. "I don't believe it!" the orange-haired girl cried out in a combination of irritation and fear. Why Ash did have to have that hero complex? "Please, Ash... come back!" she pleaded quietly.

======

"This is Captain Damir Ramius, commanding ballistic missile UNNS Kraken. I have received a quantum launch order. I must confirm the identity of the person issuing the order. I will need a voice and name check."

Williams nodded. "Major General Kent Lanning Williams, Commander of UNDF Indigo - Kanto Region."

"Thank you, General. Now I must copy your authorisation code."

Williams reached into the inside pocket of his uniform jacket, pulling out a laminated plastic card. He briefly scanned what was written on the card according to the pattern that he and he alone knew. "The Day Code is 'Red-2-9-4'," Williams announced. "Authorisation code is '3-0-9-9-2-7-Bravo'."

Far away, Captain Ramius read his sheet of launch codes and felt an icy finger of fear on his back. "What is the code on line five of column four, sir?" Williams sucked in a breath before reading off the twelve-digit prime number. Somehow, his voice remained steady. On the other end of the communications line, Captain Ramius sounded like a recorded telephone announcement for all the emotion in his voice. "I will need a second command-authorised person to confirm this order, sir."

Robertson stepped forward, his face shining with an unhealthy light that made the professional soldiers in the War Room feel distinctly uncomfortable. "Captain, this is Chairman of the United Nations Security Council Gerald Arthur Robertson. I hereby authorise you to launch your missiles."

Williams and Heisenberg couldn't help but smile slightly at the pomposity in the politician's voice. Captain Ramius sounded suitably deferential. "Mr. Chairman, please give me your day and authorisation code."

Robertson snorted quietly and read off the required codes from his own unique authorisation card. After satisfying Ramius as to his identity, the man stood back and allowed Williams to take charge again. Williams held his breath for a few moments before pressing the 'transmit' button. "Captain, you have already been given the target co-ordinates. Ready one of your Planet-Buster missiles and prepare for a final launch order." Even Robertson felt cold. The Planet-Buster was the most powerful human-built explosive device in history, over half a million times more powerful than the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Suddenly, everyone in the room knew the stakes with unparalleled clarity.

======

Omega approached her true objective. She was just preparing to commence her attack run when she was struck behind for an Aeroblast many orders of magnitude more powerful than any attack that she had previously suffered. A crater was formed where she crashed.

Stop, Dark Guardian!

"Dark Guardian?" she thought, confused. She looked at her attacker. It was a gigantic, white and black bird, that, for some reason, reminded Omega of a Concorde aeroplane. It was Lugia, accompanied by Ho-oh, Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres.

Hate boiled up inside of Omega. With a frightening roar, she arose to the skies, and into the attack. At that moment, the ground opened up and The God of the Mountains, Groudon exploded out into the air towards Omega, leading with his metre-long claws. Simultaneously, the ocean around Fuchsia City seemed to rise up and Kygore, the God of the Deep emerged. Both of the Rival Gods of Houen unleashed their most powerful attacks at the genetically-engineered super-weapon. Simultaneously, two birds that resembled swing-wing fighter-bombers dived out of the sun, spitting psychic and ice-type attacks at Omega. They were accompanied by three wingless fliers, one purple, one pink and one green, who launched their own attacks. Three mighty creatures like crosses between bears and cats suddenly pounced out of nowhere, firing their own attacks upward into the fray.

======

"Sir! You won't believe on this!" The commander of the defence of Fuchsia City exclaimed to his superior.

"What won't I believe, Brigadier Jordan?"

"Omega is... she is... facing the Legendary Pokémon, sir!"

Gerald Robertson didn't understand why everybody in the War Room of War was in stunned silence. After all, he was not from this part of the world, he didn't know the legends about the powers of the Legendary Birds and the other Legendary Pokémon.

"Put it on the screen!" Williams ordered. "Now!"

Everybody watched in silence a battle that would never imagine to see: The Protecting Powers of Kanto Region facing the almost alien power of Omega. And the most incredible and terrible... it was that Omega might even win...

======

Ash approached the battlefield and he saw, almost unable to believe, that Omega was able to match the power of the Legendary Birds. Only now he really had idea about the true power of his mother...

"Well, it is now." he murmured for himself. "Are you ready, Pikachu?"

["Yes, Ash."]

"Then let's go! Charizard, you know what to do!"

Omega emerged from the interacting fireball of dozens of unimaginably powerful attacks with a scream of pain. She was still weak from the poison that the orange-haired little bitch back at the chemical plant had injected into her and her Light Screen couldn't take this sort of abuse for too long. She couldn't face these enemies now; She had to get past them and get to her target!

Ash breathed deeply and, with Pikachu on his back, jumped onto the flying form of his mother. He lashed out with all the strength in his arm and his hand passed through the outer layers of his mother's substance, seizing the control collar where it rested around her throat like a strange ornament. He braced himself and prayed for the best. "Pikachu, Now!" he ordered.

Pikachu gathered all her power, throwing the most powerful Thunder Attack of his life, that was transmitted straight to the control necklace in an attempt of overload and destroying it... using the wires and Ash's own body as a conduit.

Omega shrieked in pain, no longer sounding even remotely human, feeling all that energy blasting through her nervous system. She shook herself violently, with such force that Pikachu lost his grip and fell from Ash's back. Charizard caught the electric Pokmon in mid-air.

Omega flowed through her body, reversing her position to face Ash. A murderous light shone in her eyes as her hands seized his neck with crushing force.

======

"The target stopped mid-air, sir!" the radar operator called out.

"I'm sorry, Ash." Williams thought, aghast, seeing the fight between the teenager and his mother in the screen. "Send Omega's current co-ordinates to the BrightEye."

"Yes, sir."

He strode over to a screen with just a window with the question: "Activate BrightEye Orbital Cannon? Y/N"

"Target locked sir!"

Williams pressed the key 'Y'.

======

Omega was fighting as much a battle against herself as she was against this annoying human (human? Perhaps not) that continued to try and defeat her. Conflicting instincts and genetic instructions beyond her comprehension were preventing her from terminating this impediment to completing her mission. The mutant woman focussed her will on her hands, trying to make them close around her enemy's neck, even as he fought to break her grip.

Then, without warning. there was only light, shining down from high above. The very air fled from the sudden outpouring of energy. At the very centre of this impossible column of energy, Omega and Ash Ketchum writhed in impossible agony as their bodies began to incandesce as the energy from the sky tried to transmute them into puffs of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen vapour.

Both beings' screams echoed throughout the bright column of white energy.

======

There was a crackle of electricity and every bit of electronic equipment carried by Jessie, James, Brock and Misty simultaneously shorted out. Their Pokémon materialised and looked around them in surprise as the Pokéballs released them before failing under the intense EMP from the BrightEye discharge.

"Ash! NO!" Misty screamed. In the distance, as the Legendary Pokémon soared away, Omega, Ash Ketchum still tangled around her, dropped lifelessly the mile or more to the ground.

======

A gelatinous blue hand, still surrounded by the occasional blue-white arc of electrostatic energy, reached behind her neck and seized a red ribbon with electronic circuits sown into it and ripped it off. The control necklace had been destroyed. Delilah Ketchum was free. Without a second thought, she threw the useless bit of debris aside. She only had a thing in her mind. "ASH!"

Delilah ran up to where her son had fallen. His breathing was shallow and filled with pain. His clothes had been all-but seared from his body. His entire body seemed to have been seared raw. "M-mom..." Ash whispered, trying to smile.

Immediately, Delilah hugged Ash. "Ash, forgive me! Please!"

"All.. right, mom... You... are.. free..." The light in Ash's eyes faded and his breathing stopped. The damage that Ash had received was more extensive than his healing factor could deal with.

"Ash? ASH! GOD, NO!" Delilah shook the inert body of her child desperately... She had... she had... "PLEASE, NOOO!" She screamed, tears of despair and horror running down her face. Then she remembered when the regenerative power of Ash had manifest itself for the first time.

With a tiny thread of hope in her heart, she clasped her son's body to her. 'It can work!' she thought desperately.

======

Meanwhile, a heated discussion was in progress in the War Room, in the UNDF Headquarters. The image of Omega holding her son was on the screen, filmed from a spy satellite that had somehow escaped the EMP effect. "Williams, Omega is still alive!" Robertson exclaimed "If you don't launch the missile now, she will destroy the whole of Indigo Island!" 

"Kent, she is too close of Fuchsia City! Everybody in the city would die!" Heisenberg also exclaimed.

"General Williams, what are your orders?" Captain Ramius, of UNNS Kraken asked through the radio.

Robertson heard Omega's terrible scream and misinterpreted what it meant. He pulled up the radio microphone from Williams' hands. "Launch the missile now!" the politician screamed. "Fire!!!"

In UNNS Kraken, the captain and his second-in-command rotated the metallic keys when they heard the order.

A missile armed with a quantum device with an explosive yield equivalent to ten billion tons of TNT exploded out of its firing tube. The power of pressurised gas pushed it the 200 feet to the ocean's surface where its' four liquid-fuelled rocket engines ignited. The UGM-304A Planet-Buster missile arced into the heavens. Its target - Fuchsia City... and Omega.

======

Misty arrived well on time to see an electric shine surround mother and child. The mutant woman screamed in agony, while Ash's burns began to heal itself... Misty suddenly understood. Omega had used her morphing abilities to copy Ash's DNA, including his uncanny powers of healing... and was now absorbing her son's mortal wounds, just as he had once absorbed hers.

"Mom?" Ash asked, in a weak and confused voice.

"You will be fine, Ash. I promise!" Delilah whispered gently for her son, hugging him tightly.

The need to hug Ash was far stronger than the fear that Misty felt for Omega. She ran over to them and she hugged Ash far more strongly than his mother could in her current, weakened state.

"Hey, what is that?" James asked, pointing into the sky. It looked like a meteorite, a single, blue-white point, followed by a white vapour trail.

Delilah stood up immediately. With her vision, she identified the object. "It it's... a ballistic missile re-entry vehicle..." she announced, "and by the trajectory... it will detonate almost directly overhead!" her voice rising in disbelief.

No one was able to process the information for a few seconds. "Can't we go to some shelter?" Jessie asked, weakly.

"It won't make difference." James explained sadly.

For one moment, Delilah looked around herself in stunned silence. She saw Misty hugging Ash... James and Jessie hugging each other... preparing for their death...

There was only a thing that she could do. "I will deal with this." She said simply, looking at the sky.

She bent over and hugged her son with all the love that had. Over his shoulder, she looked at Misty. The trainer from Cerulean City heard the woman's voice echo in her mind. Misty, please, take care of him. He will not understand. Misty nodded, tears springing to her eyes as she realised what was about to happen.

Delilah noted that, during the healing process, a strip of white hair had appeared over the crown of her son's head. She pushed the fringe aside and placed a gentle kiss on her son's forehead. Then she stood up and stepped away from her son and his mate. "Mom?" His weak voice was confused.

Wings flowed out of her back.

No matter what happens from this moment forth, always remember that I love you... my son. Then she rose in direction of the dark night. Ash kept his arm stretched out in the direction in that she had gone, until the night was driven away by a terrible, unnatural light brighter than a billion suns.

* * *

To be continued...

Chapter 17 coming soon.

What do you think? Read and Review!


	17. Into Another Life

The Omega Mutation  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter :-D

* * *

Chapter 17 - Into Another Life

Three hours after a manmade sun had shone over the Kanto Region, two people nervously awaited the reaction of the man sat in the shadows.

"So..." Giovanni said slowly, "Omega was destroyed?"

"Y-yes, sir!" one of Team Rocket scientists answered. "We lost her signal at the very instant that the quantum device detonated."

The leader of Team Rocket stayed silent for a moment, before speaking again. "Then, I am right in supposing that this is the only sample of Omega's DNA that remained to us?" He pointed at a small test tube, in the hands of one of the scientists, filled with a blue gel-like fluid.

"Yes, all the rest was destroyed when the rogue agents Gibson and Morgan and their accomplices attacked the main laboratory of the Project."

"I understand. Leave the test tube on the table and leave."

The two scientists, in spite of their confusion at their order, obeyed immediately. Giovanni remained still in his office for a long time, alone with his thoughts. Finally, he opened the drawer and looked at his photo of Delia Darkholme with him when they were both younger. With no expression in his face, he typed a command and the grate in his private office ignited. Then, he rose and went to the closet at the desk' side and opened a bottle of wine and filled a cup. Quietly, he had a sip of the drink, while he held the picture. For several minutes, he just looked at the photo. Then, with a fast movement of the wrist, he threw it in the fireplace and watched while the fire consumed it.

Giovanni raised his cup of wine as if he were making a toast. "Congratulations, Delia", he murmured to himself. "You did it."

He only turned off the fire when the picture was totally consumed. Then, Giovanni turned and looked at the test tube thoughtfully.

======

Ash Ketchum was at his house, finished the long, heart-breaking task of cleaning. The boy put down a cardboard box, filled with the last few things that he wanted to save before he left for the last time. Pikachu and Chikorita watched him in silence, sadness in their eyes. Mimey brushed the ground with a broom, as mechanically and quietly, as a robot. It was just one week ago that Ash had recovered enough to be released from the Medical Ward of Vermilion City UNDF base. General Williams guaranteed him that all the records about Ash's stay would be destroyed, for Ash's own safety if for no other reason...

And it was one month since...

Ash closed his eyes, trying to block out the memory. A gentle knock at the door distracted him.

"Come in."

The door opened, revealing Professor Oak and Misty, holding Togepi, dressed in black. When Ash saw them, he asked: "Is it time?"

"Yes, Ash," Professor Oak said kindly.

"Wait just one moment, please..." Ash said in a distracted tone of voice. "I'll get ready..." As he went up the stairs, the two visitors watched him with concern. Then, because they had been asked, they waited. Some minutes later, Ash came down the stairway, dressed a black suit and pants.

"Let's go," he said.

Oak opened the door, while Ash and Misty left the house, holding each other's hands. Pikachu and Chikorita, with Togepi riding on the little grass-type's back, accompanied them. They climbed into the car and they left for their destination. While Misty held Ash's hands in an attempt to comfort him, the boy looked silently through the window, as snow began to fall.

"It'll be a White Christmas after all." He said suddenly.

No one replied. What could they say?

======

The wind blew gently over the town, its quiet sighs a lament, carrying a gentle rain of snow flakes. The sadness in the air resonated with the silent group, dressed in black, gathered in Pallet Town Cemetery. It was Delilah Ketchum's funeral.

At a respectful distance, General Kent L. Williams watched the people present at the funeral. They were the few people that Delilah had known while she lived in the town. They were people that respected the gentle but somewhat reclusive woman. He noticed that they looked at Ash with solidarity, after all, he had lost his mother... They didn't have to really know, as the funeral was, in certain way, a show. There was no body in the coffin to be buried. Williams knew, because he had helped to organise this "performance".

It was one month ago that the "Kraken Incident" had happened - as the detonation of that quantum device had been named by the global media. The general didn't even remember what the United Nations Public Relations Department invented to explain the inexplicable to the public opinion of the world. The only things that were known with accuracy were this: One - the radar system on a UNDF warship near the target area had detected an object flying towards the incoming warhead at supersonic speeds. Two - the missile detonated when the object approached it, still over fifty miles above the surface of the Earth. Three - the radar had lost track of the object in the massive electromagnetic pulse unleashed by the explosion. It seemed reasonable to think that not even Omega could survive a matter-antimatter explosion...

Kent Williams turned his eyes to Ash Ketchum, who was in the first line, at the side of the coffin. His face was pale, with a stunned, almost shocked, expression. His body was tense, rigid as a statue - if he was a wax statue, it would not have made difference at all. It was a natural reaction, after all, how he could believe that his mother - of all people on the planet - had died?

On his left shoulder, the boy's Pikachu watched with a sad expression on his face. On the other side, his Chikorita caressed his other shoulder, trying console him. Misty held his hand with force - she had practically not left his side since he had awoken in the Medical Ward of Vermilion City Base. Looking at them and with tears in his own eyes was Professor Samuel Oak. He had assumed the role of temporary guardian of Ash until the young man's situation was established by the authorities.

A little behind them, standing in silence, there were Jessie Gibson and James Morgan. Their appearance was very changed: her red hair now was very short, almost like a boy, besides using contact lenses that made her eyes seem to be purple. Her boyfriend (assuming that they ever decided to admit that to themselves) had a moustache and had black hair now. No, the General corrected himself: now their names were 'Morrigan Ketchum' and 'Jeremy North' - the new identities that the Military Intelligence section of UNDF had supplied for them, as thanks for their help in the Omega Crisis. Now, they worked as research assistants in the Pallet Town Pokémon Research Center.

At the very moment in that the priest finished his sermon, the snow began to fall more strongly, as if the weather mirrored the sadness of the group.

The coffin was then lowered and covered with earth. Ash placed a bouquet of red roses on the grave - they were his mother's favourite flowers.

The ceremony over, the people began to go their separate ways, some coming close to offer a few words of condolence to the boy standing at the very foot of the grave. Misty looked up, and met her father's eyes with her own, silently communicating her determination to stay with Ash. He nodded his understanding.

Now, there were only them and their Pokémon beside the grave.

"Ash... are you ok?" she asked kindly.

"I think so..." The insecurity of his voice was obvious. "I mean... I can't cry. I think that it is because I can't believe that she has really died. Something inside of me says that something is wrong, that she is not dead..." He lifted his eyes. "Am I wrong in feeling that, Misty?"

Misty hugged him. "No, Ash, you are not wrong for feeling like this," she murmured into his ear. "You just miss her. You still want to believe that she is here." She looked into his eyes. "After all, wasn't she a good person?"

The Pokémon Trainer closed his eyes, thinking back to all his memories with his mother. "S-she was the best." A solitary tear rolled through his face.

The two teenagers hugged each other for a long time, before Misty spoke again. "I think that we should go now, Ash."

He just nodded his head in agreement. Slowly, Ash and Misty stepped back of Delilah Ketchum's grave. Hugging each other to give strength to each other. They didn't notice that they were watched intensely by somebody that was hidden in the shadows of a big tree. The observer waited until they had left, before leaving its hiding place and to approach of the grave. She walked a slightly strange way, as if her legs hurt a little.

The observer seemed to be a tall woman, using a long black rubber raincoat, its' hood lifted to hide her face. She stood in the falling snow for a long time, without moving. Then, slowly, she took a single red rose from within her coat and placed it gently beside the flowers that Ash had left.

The woman in the long raincoat seemed to give a sigh and she began move away from the place. She walked under a tree and seemed to mix with the shadows. An instant later, a Pidgeotto flew from the tree.

======

One week later, two youths were helping Tracey to feed the Pokémon of the Research Center. One of them was a 14 year-old boy and the other was a 20 year-old woman with short red hair. The boy was wearing an old Pokémon League cap that totally hid a small white tuft in his hair and a black leather jacket closed up to the neck and leather gloves, intended to prevent his healing factor from being unexpectedly triggered. Oddly enough, all the other manifestations of Ash's mutant Omega Factor had disappeared. Professor Oak had theorised that this was an aspect of the healing factor used by Delilah to heal her son's injuries. While the healing factor and the enhanced senses themselves were part of Ash's genetic make-up, all the other abilities, earth-type powers and spinnerets, were induced by the trauma of his captivity. The healing had restored him to his 'natural state', of which those extra powers were no part. Both stopped their work when they saw Professor Oak coming in their direction.

"There is someone wanting to speak with you and Jes... with you and Morrigan." The Pokémon researcher corrected on time. "He is from social services."

The young Pokémon trainer was immediately alert. "Did he show you any identification?"

Professor Oak rolled his eyes. Clearly, Delilah had taught her son caution. "Yes, he did Ash. I verified that it is authentic."

"I understand." He looked at his cousin, that nodded. Ash adjusted the leather jacket and the black gloves that now he used to prevent his healing factor to activate unexpectedly in a casual contact. "We are going."

Later, Ash and Jessie were in the downtown of Viridian City, in the central office of the Social Services of Kanto. They walked down a corridor at the side of a social worker, a nice man called Mr. Jericho. He noticed that the two youths, Ash and Morrigan Ketchum, were acting in a very defensive manner. It was not a surprise, really, they had lost a person whom they both loved very much. Jericho hoped they liked the good news that they would have in some moments.

"But, sir, for what I had understood, Professor Oak would be responsible..." Ash began.

"Yes, Mr. Oak was the person named by Mrs. Ketchum in her will as your guardian, but by the law, a family member has precedence as a guardian." The two young people immediately exchanged glances.

"A family member?" Jessie asked. "But I am Ash's only relative, and I am only 20 years old..."

The social worker smiled. "In this case, I have some news." They had arrived at the end of the corridor and he opened a door. "There is someone that would like to speak with you." Inside of the office, with her back to them, a woman in a black raincoat was seated in a chair, the hood covering her head.

"Who?"

"Your mother's older sister, Esther." And before they could recover, Jericho spoke to the woman. "Miss Ketchum, there are your nephews, Ash and Morrigan."

Without turning, the woman said. "Thank you, Mr. Jericho. Could I speak with them alone, please?"

"Sure." And the employee left and closed the door.

The silence reigned for one entire minute before Ash spoke. "Okay, who are you?" Ash asked with emphasis, but something in his tone seemed shaken. He had a strange feeling that he knew this woman.

"I knew that you would react in this way, Ash." the woman murmured. She rose and turned to them, removing the hood. "Esther" was tall and had short dark brown hair, at shoulder-length, with a small white tuft in the forehead, like Ash had. The big dark glasses hid her eyes. The long black raincoat that she wearing was open, showing the elegant business suit that she used. She seemed a business woman, but it was not what that surprised Ash: her neutral face was surprisingly similar, and at same time, different from that of his mother.

"Who are you?"

The woman removed the glasses and he saw her gentle brown eyes. The forms of the face modified subtly. Her brown hair seemed to be alive, growing and changing to red, although the white tuft remained. Surely you recognise me... my son? an oh-so familiar voice echoed in his mind.

Ash's voice faltered. "M-Mom?" he choked out.

Delilah Ketchum smiled at her son. "Yes, it's me," she said in a quiet voice.

Ash grabbed the woman by the arm, the strength of his grip amazing as if he were trying by force to be sure that this woman truly was what she claimed to be. Then, that detail confirmed, the explosion occurred.

"WHERE WERE YOU?! DID YOU KNOW THAT I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!?" He exclaimed at the top of his voice, much more shocked than angry, grabbing Delilah by the shoulders. "IF YOU SURVIVED THE EXPLOSION, WHY DID YOU...?"

Delilah stayed silent; She understood that Ash was entitled to that reaction. She tried to explain. "Well, Ash, I had to be sure that..."

"Oh, why do I even care?" he asked, interrupting her and then he hugged her with all of his strength. Tears began to run from his eyes. Delilah kindly stroked his hair, while he sobbed silently. After some minutes, Ash released her from the hug and looked straight at her eyes.

"Now I want that you promise me that you won't pull a stunt like that ever again!"

Delilah smiled. "Alright, I promise."

"But how you survive the explosion?"

"I don't know, sincerely I don't know! I mean, I didn't expected to survive something like that! Honestly...!"

"Er... Ash?" a voice interrupted, and Ash remembered Jessie. She was standing close to the closed door of the office. At that moment it seemed that Delilah noticed the presence of the former Rocket agent for the first time. The mutant woman looked at the redhaired young woman with surprise.

"Mom, do you recognise her?" Ash asked slowly and uncertainly.

"Yes." Delilah said neutrally. "She is the young woman that helped you to deal with me while I was under the control of Team Rocket."

Ash cleared his throat. After wracking his brains for a few moments, he decided there was no gentle way to deal with this situation. "Okay, then. Mom, do you remember that you told me that you had a niece?" Delilah nodded mutely. "Well then, this is her," he said, gesturing Jessie. The redhead smiled a little uncertainly and waved nervously.

Jessie swallowed dryly and extended her hand. "H-Hello... Mrs. Ketchum," she said, sounding a little embarrassed. With the same felling of strangeness, Delilah shook hands. Her natural morphic abilities instantly mapped the woman's DNA patterns and she instinctively felt the kinship that Jessie shared with her Delilah's human aspect... The two women locked eyes and they understood what that meant...

======

A red-haired young woman was in the kitchen of Esther Ketchum's house, preparing a jug coffee. She has just put hot water in the coffee pot when she turned and saw before her a pair of brilliant green slitted eyes.

"AAAHHHH!" Jessie screamed and backed off as far as she could.

"Excuse me!" Delilah exclaimed, embarrassed. That had been the fifth scare only in that day... 'I keep forgetting that she is not used with my default form like Ash is!' she thought, blaming herself. 'Not that I can you blame her for that...' "I'm sorry, Jessie!"

Jessie swallowed dryly, controlling herself but still maintaining a safe distance. She could not explain why! She knew by now that Mrs. Ketchum will not hurt her... but she feels that need to run away from her every time that Mrs. Ketchum was in her "natural" form... "Sure, Mrs. Ketchum... but you could... er..."

"Oh, of course!" Delilah exclaimed, assuming her (new) human form. Jessie relaxed visibly. In human form, the mutant woman didn't produce the fear pheromones that boost the panic that people felt around her ('As if my alien looks aren't enough.' Delilah thought, miffed)... Ash was immune due his enhanced immune system, but Jessie and Misty were another matter... "What are you doing?"

"Just a coffee. Would you like a cup?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Where is Ash?"

"He is with Misty. He is telling her.. you know... about me."

"I understand..." Jessie murmured, giving a cup for Delilah. Due to her transformation into Omega, Delilah could metabolise even toxic waste, if necessary. However, as she was expecting Jessie's coffee to be within the normal flavour range suitable for humans, she suffered an unexpected reaction: she almost choked.

"What's wrong, Mrs. Ketchum?" Jessie asked afraid. 'Could Omega be possibly poisoned by my coffee?' Jessie thought, distraught. 'My coffee can't be that bad... could it?' Suddenly, she recalled that James and Meowth hadn't ever drunk coffee when she made it once.

Delilah swallowed the coffee with a grimace that she couldn't disguise. "No-Nothing... the coffee is just a little too strong." she lied, with a shining smile of sincerity. 'She is like Miya in the kitchen, no doubt about it!' the mutant woman thought, sweatdropping. In spite of being an excellent friend, her sister was a disaster as a cook!

Jessie's shoulders fell. She had noticed that her aunt was trying cover the facts...

"Did you use that coffee pot?" Delilah asked.

"Yes..."

"Well, it has some little secrets. I will explain to you..." And the older woman began to give Jessie some tips that really helped. The taste of the new coffee improved very much. Delilah now confidently expected that an unprepared human could drink it without an immediate adverse reaction. She would still leave some Antidote lying around, though.

"It's very good!" Jessie commented, surprised.

"You just need be careful with some details."

"I understand..." Jessie paused before broaching what, for her, was a very delicate subject. "Um.. Can I ask something?"

"Go ahead."

"You could tell me... about my mother?" The former Rocket asked, shyly.

Delilah smiled. "Of course, Jessie... but I think that will be better if we sit down."

The two women sat down at the table of the kitchen and they began a long chat. And at its end, some of the barriers among the two women had been broken.

======

A UN Defense Forces official car had just left the new base under construction in the area between Pallet Town and Viridian City. It would be the new Defense Command Center of Indigo Island, after the complete restructuring of UNDF in the Kanto Region in the wake of the "Omega Incident". In the car were Captain Katherine Pryde and General Kent Williams.

"Is the new base satisfactory, sir?" The captain asked.

"Yes, Kitty. It will be the perfect headquarters for the Command Center." The general looked through the window of the car and asked suddenly. "What is the time until we reach Route 2?"

"About fifteen minutes, sir," Captain Pryde replied, looked curiously at her boss' face in the rear-view mirror.

Williams thought for one moment. "Kitty, first take us back to Route 1. There is someone that I need to see in Pallet Town."

"Yes, sir."

About a quarter of an hour later, Williams knocked on the door of a house. The door opened to reveal a brown-haired woman wearing a sober black business suit and dark-tinted glasses. Her expression was calm and curious. "Yes, what do you want?"

"Miss Ketchum? Miss Esther Ketchum?"

"Yes, I'm her." Her tone was cautious. "What do you want?"

Williams blocked his urge to flash his UNDF ID card in the woman's face. After all, he was here in an unofficial capacity. "My name is Kent Williams, Miss Ketchum. I am Misty's father."

"Oh! I see... Do you want to come in?"

A few minutes later, they were talking in the living room.

"Thank you for your kindness, Mr. Williams," Esther was saying as she sipped on a cup of coffee brought to her by her late sister's Mr. Mime.

"I thought that I should personally convey my condolences for your younger sister's death," Williams replied. "Officially, of course, the UN can never reveal the entire truth of what happened to her, even to you. However, for what it is worth, in my view she is a heroine who deserves the highest decorations that we can give for courage."

"If it helps you," the woman in black replied, crossing her legs and putting her gloved hands on her knees, "Ash and Misty have already told me what happened to my poor baby sister. How Team Rocket kidnapped her and turned her into that... thing."

"I see..." Williams replied. 'Thankfully, she obviously doesn't want publicise this knowledge or I would have been here long before,' he thought, relieved for that much. He looked at his cup of coffee for a moment before replying. "I must say that I am surprised that they told you so much."

"Why are you so surprised about it, Mr. Williams?" she asked calmly.

"Well... Misty told me that you had not been very close to your two sisters' children and that you had been out of contact for some time..."

"That is correct, Mr. Williams. Delilah and I had a serious disagreement shortly before Ash's birth and I have been overseas since then. However, I kept in regular contact with Ash. So, he knows me reasonably well. And Morrigan too, of course."

Williams decided that he would check up on the woman's story. He still hadn't totally abandoned his initial impulse to look after Ash himself. "How are they doing right now?"

"They are recovering well. As you probably know, Ash is on a Pokémon Journey through Houen with Misty and Brock. Misty had the chance to become the full Leader of the Cascade Gym in Cerulean City, but she doesn't want to leave Ash." Kent Williams nodded and sipped on his coffee, recalling the favours that he had to call in to convince the League to let Daisy remain as the Gym Leader rather than have Misty forced to choose between the Gym that had been led by the women of her family for generations and her feelings for Ash. Esther sighed before continuing. "I suppose that this is probably the best therapy for him - the Pokémon training that he so much loves... My niece is at this exact moment working at Professor Oak's labs, with Jeremy and Mitch." 'Mitch Jennings' was Mondo Treleaven's new name. "I believe that it is easier for her to deal with this, as she didn't know Delilah so well."

Williams observed Esther Ketchum carefully. This, then, was Delilah Ketchum's sister. He noticed the family likeness, mainly in the face and in the calm manners (he still remembered Violet's marriage party, when he had seen her for the first time). 'You idiot, this is not the time to think about that!' he reprimanded himself, shaking his head.

"Something wrong?"

"No, Miss Ketchum."

"Maybe I should not ask this, but what happened to that official that kidnapped Ash and Misty?"

Williams thought for a moment. That was, technically, classified information, but didn't she deserve to know it? After all it involved her family... "Well, former general Jeffrey Straker was court-martialled and received a dishonourable discharge from the UNDF. He is currently serving a 45-year sentence for kidnap in the Anvil." The Anvil was the name of the UN-controlled maximum security prison, built under the ice and deadly cold of Antarctica.

Esther's expression became very cold. "That is something that he deserved very much! And what about Team Rocket?"

Williams sighed, unwilling to admit such a failure. "Unfortunately, Team Rocket had eliminated all the vestiges of their occupation from the Black Island Base before the UNDF forces arrived... Regrettably, we also have no clues as to the whereabouts of Dr. Madeleine Ivy..."

"The woman that transformed my sister into that 'Omega' thing," Esther interrupted, a freezing cold hatred filling her voice.

"Er... yes, that is correct Miss Ketchum," Williams said, recovering quickly. Regrettably, we are also unable to find any clues to her whereabouts, or that of the terrorists Seaborg and Longstreet." Suddenly, Williams felt a headache.

"Are you ok?" Esther asked, her head cocked to one side in curiosity.

"What...? Oh, yes... I'm just coming down with a slight headache." He looked at the clock. "Well, I have to go. Thanks for your hospitality."

The smile returned to Esther's face as she rose from her armchair. She went open to door but tripped over the rug and she lost her balance. Williams grabbed the woman by the arm before she fell and he stooped to collect her glasses from where they fell.

"Are you okay, Miss Ketchum?"

"Yes, thank you." Esther looked on in puzzlement as Williams stared into her face. "Is there anything else, Mr. Williams?"

"Oh.. nothing, Mrs. Ketchum." He answered, returning her dark glasses.

They said good-bye. On his way to Viridian City, the image of Esther Ketchum's eyes repeated in his mind.

Meanwhile, Delilah Ketchum breathed deeply, calming herself. That had been very close! Now she knew where Butch and Cassidy were probably hiding... The mutant woman bit her bottom lip: She had invaded the mind of Williams quickly and subtly, not wanting to cause damage but... she had not been able to quell the urge to do so... she just had to know that so that she could...

Delilah closed her eyes, trying to control herself.

======

In the next night, two people sat in a small, single-room hut in the middle of the forest around Goldenrod City, preparing to sleep. The woman pulled off a long black wig, revealing her long, blonde hair. "Damn it! Why is the Boss keeping us at a loose end like this? It has been over a month!"

"Cassidy, just be thankful that he was satisfied with censuring us and that he didn't decide to send us to Level 22!" Butch replied, sounding bored with his partner's whining.

Cassidy made an angry face. It wasn't their fault that Omega was destroyed! Some minutes after they went to sleep, there was a noise that awoke Butch... It sounded like somebody walking with high heels... in the middle of the forest? Before he could open the mouth, the door of the hut was destroyed by a Hyper Beam. Stunned, he only had chance of seeing a woman's silhouette before she fired a Spinarak's Spider Web over them.

With the faces now forced against the ground, they could not see the face of their attacker. Butch and Cassidy felt a shadow pass over them at the same time that something cold and metallic pressed against the backs of their necks.

"If you want to leave here alive, you will tell me what I want to know," said, with a cold and quiet female voice. 'And now the entertainment will begin.' the attacker thought, with cold pleasure in her voice... but fear in her eyes.

======

Later, in a dark apartment in a building in downtown Blackthorn City, a woman with a silenced pistol checked for the fifteenth time if the doors were well locked. With a blond wig and make-up, she didn't look at all like her previous appearance... Now she was a fugitive, with reputation and career destroyed...

Madeleine Ivy was so focussed on checking her security arrangements that didn't hear when a blue substance began to flow through the overflow of the bath tub. Ivy was about to return to her bedroom, when she heard a voice that she had hoped to never hear again...

"The prodigal daughter has returned."

The former Team Rocket geneticist turned and she saw her greatest creation, Omega, leaning against the frame of the door to the bathroom, one hand extended in a subtly seductive pose. Terrified, the scientist started firing shots at Omega. The mutant woman just laughed as the bullets punched through and slapped into the wall beyond. When Ivy finally ran out of ammunition, Omega just shook her index finger, in a gesture of reproof. "Now, now, Madeline," she purred. "Is that any way to greet me after I went to all this trouble to find you?"

Ivy gave a strangled scream and turned to flee. Immediately, Omega flowed across the room like a living wave of blue fluid, reformed before the fugitive, and punched her straight in the face. Ivy dropped to the floor on the other side of the room. In an instant, Omega was over her and covered her mouth with a cold and gelatinous hand, choking her screams completely. Two tentacles flowed out of Omega's neck and they adhered to the geneticist's temples, who began to twist in a desperate attempt to escape.

Omega leaned forward to whisper sensually into the woman's ear. "Enjoy the ride, dear," she whispered, before discharging a Thundershock into Ivy's central nervous system.

======

Later, in Millennium City, a young woman walked through the night, in the direction of her apartment. She had to go out to buy some medicines for her cold. The fact that she was ill just matched the fact she was feeling terrible anyway: even after all the time she spent in confinement, she knew would be lucky if the Boss was satisfied at demoting her to a Dan'in 'grunt'. Then she stopped - she was sure that was someone watching her. She grabbed a Pokéball at her waist and turned around.

There was no one in the street. Domino began to breathe more easily.

"I'm becoming paranoid." she decided, not noticing the shadow that was jumping from a rooftop to another.

The Rocket agent walked for some time before, without warning, several Vine Whips grabbed her and dragged her into a dark alley. She was slammed against a wall and an oily, cold hand clamped over her mouth. Vine whips immobilised her limbs.

"Don't try anything!" Omega's cold voice hissed, at same time that began to use Terror to guarantee that she had Domino's full attention, but that wasn't necessary since that the terrorist noticed what the mutant woman had on her hands... blood. Omega breathed deeply - her mission was different this time. She had seen the reflection of what she was in the face of the young Rocket.

"Listen, Domino. I haven't forgotten that you stopped Butch and Cassidy when they attacked me... That means that I owe you a favour, one that I am paying now. Listen what I have to say: Get out of Team Rocket before it transforms you just like it transformed me! This is the only warning that I will give you!"

Domino was too scared to answer.

The mutant woman leaned right forwards, glowing green eyes staring into terrified ice-blue eyes. "Are you listening me?" Omega snarled.

The blonde young woman nodded her head frantically. Yes, she did.

"Good girl," the mutant woman replied with a chilling smile. "Maybe you will have a better future than me." She released her victim, who immediately fell to her knees. Omega strode away to the mouth of the alleyway.

Domino saw two translucent wings flow out from Omega's back. When Omega leapt into the sky, Domino touched her face. The blood of Omega's victim, whoever that was, was still fresh...

======

A loud noise, almost a collision, woke Jessie up. It had come from her aunt's bedroom...

Swallowing dryly, she lifted up a Pokéball and walked slowly until the door of her aunt's bedroom. There is a sound coming from it... something was destroying the furniture there. Then the silence and then another sound, different of the previous one... it seemed that she was... crying?

"Mrs. Ketchum?"

No answer.

The redhead released her Lickitung and opened the door slowly. The room was destroyed, Delilah was sitting on the floor in her default form, tears running from her serpentine eyes, a clear self-loathing visible on her gel-like face... Something dark covered her hands. The light of a lamp shade revealed the true colour... blood red...

"What happened?" The fear was evident in the young voice.

The mutant woman looked at Jessie. "Omega had... her revenge," she murmured.

Jessie was silent. The mutant woman hugged her knees and cried, trying to find a forgiveness that would not come.

======

General Kent Lanning Williams was overseeing the last details on the transfer of the Defence Command from the Vermilion City Base to the new base in the Pallet-Viridian region, newly christened 'Alpha Command', when the phone rung. It was the private line.

"Yes, Kitty?"

"General Williams, Major Logan wishes speak to you," Captain Katherine "Kitty" Pryde said formally.

"Put him through," he said, surprised by the formality.

"He wishes to speak with you privately, sir."

"I understand..." He affirmed slowly. "Thank you, captain."

Kent Williams turned off the phone and activated the terminal on the desk. He accessed the satellite communication program, using the CEV-1 (or "see every one"), system exclusive to the UNDF. Moments later, the image of Major Robert Logan appeared in a window on the screen of the computer.

"What happened, Robert?" Williams asked, thankful that could speak normally through the cryptography system today - in the first systems, the user had to speak so slowly that seemed the scene of a comedy of errors. And when he noticed the tall trees visible through the window of Logan's car, he added: "Where are you?"

"I'm in the West Forest, close to Goldenrod City, sir. Team Rocket agents Cassidy Longstreet and Butch Seaborg were captured by the local Security Police in a hut that served as hiding place for Team Rocket in this area."

For one moment, Williams was silent, confused. Why had Logan insisted on using such a high level of security - a super-encrypted communication through the exclusive UNDF satellite communication system - to tell him something that would appear in a routine report?

"Something... unusual about this capture, Major?" Williams asked.

"Definitively yes, General. Are you aware of the state in that Major Sandra Stormer was found?"

"Yes, Major."

"Well, both were in a state that was even worst, almost unrecognisable. Beaten almost to the death, with marks of knife blows, burns and electric shocks over the whole body."

Williams felt as if someone had replaced his heart with a block of ice. "When will they be in a condition to speak, Major?"

Logan licked his lips. "Probably never, General," he said. Williams' expression must have communicated his disbelief. "Whoever did this seems to have inflicted some kind of brain damage, they can't speak or move. And there is something even stranger, General."

"What?"

"The word "Rapist" has been branded onto the backs of both terrorists."

Williams was silent for a moment. "Thank you for informing me, Robert," he replied at last. "Ensure that Seaborg and Longstreet are taken to the nearest top-security UNDF medical facility and that only medics with the highest clearance are allowed access to them. And I want you to debrief the Security Police officers personally. No one is to discuss this with unauthorised persons, is that clear?" Williams sucked in his breath before giving one last order. "Logan, Seaborg and Longstreet are dead. Outside of whatever medical facility you drop them in and in the highest echelons of the UNDF, as far as anyone else is concerned, they died in that forest, do you understand?" Logan nodded his understanding; He would obey his orders, even if he didn't understand why.

The general turned off the terminal. He remembered Ash's deposition to the top secret UNDF panel that had debriefed him after the 'Omega Incident', specifically what he had seen in that moment of telepathic connection between him and his mother: that Omega had been brutally assaulted by Butch and Cassidy...

That meant that Omega was... alive - as incredible as that seemed...

If he had any doubt about that possibility, it was dispelled by the message that he received the next day. Following an anonymous clue, the Blackthorn City Security Police found the geneticist Madeleine Beryl Ivy in an apartment rented under false name... She had been brutally attacked and was in a state of shock. The psychiatrists were now saying that now she had the mental age of a three year-old, unable to take care of herself...

Omega had taken her revenge.

But where would she be?

Then he remembered a detail... immediately, he pulled up an image file on his computer and looked at it a long time...

The answer was so obvious that he wondered why he had not thought of it before...

======

Three days later, a black-haired man in civilian clothes waited at a small snack bar, close to the UNDF Headquarters, while he watched the snow falling through the window. The snack bar was practically deserted, at this time of year and that hour of the evening. A woman entered and asked a question to the young man at the counter. She was a tall woman, wearing a black raincoat with the hood raised to cover the head, and gloves and boots of the same colour. The boy pointed in the direction of the general's table. The woman sat down on the chair in front of him and she pulled back her hood, revealing her dark brown hair and the dark glasses that hid her eyes.

"Thank you for acceding to my request, Miss Ketchum," Williams said neutrally.

"You are welcome, Mr. Williams... although I don't understand why you should want to meet me again."

"Professor Madeleine Ivy and Team Rocket agents Cassidy Longstreet and Butch Seaborg have been found."

Esther Ketchum's expression didn't change. "Really? You mean that the Security Police arrested them?"

"Actually, somebody took care of them before we found them," Williams said deliberately. "But I believe that you know more about that than even I do... Don't you, Mrs. Delilah Ketchum?"

The woman was silent for an instant, totally dumbfounded. "General... I think you are making a mistake... my name is Esther and..."

The UNDF officer interrupted her. "Mrs. Ketchum, you don't need to worry - for all that matters, Omega died in the Kraken Incident and the Security Police considers what happened with those Rockets an attempt of "file-erasing" on the part of the terrorist organisation. So, you can open up: your secret is safe with me."

Delilah Ketchum stayed in silence, while she looked directly into the man's eyes. He was telling her the truth. "Thank you, Mr. Williams." He finally said.

"You are welcome." he said shrugging, and then he raised an eyebrow, questioning. "You discovered where Butch and Cassidy were by reading my mind, didn't you? That was what caused my headache."

"Yes... I... I'm sorry." Delilah looked down, full of shame, wishing that she could hide.

The two sat in silence before she could speak again. "But how did you find out? I covered all my tracks..."

"You are right. You created Esther Ketchum's identity so well that nobody would disbelieve her existence - Even with Omega alive, somebody that verified the history would believe that you were be her older sister. Your new identity was perfect... except for two minor details..."

"What details?" she asked.

Kent smirked slightly. "Firstly, there was that 'skunk stripe' that you've put in your hair to match Ash's," he said. "That was a bit of an extravagance, you know Mrs. Ketchum, and a real security risk."

Delilah sighed. "That isn't anything I can control," she said. "Ever since I recovered my senses after the quantum detonation, it has been part of every human form I take; I can't get rid of it!" The woman sighed again in frustration and took off her dark glasses so she could rub at her eyes.

It was then that Kent Williams smiled proudly, and she understood the reason of it very well. He had beaten her in her own game - and he had reason to feel like proud... after all, he had defeated her more than 16 years of experience in that game... 

"Your eyes."

"My eyes?"

"Yes. In your new disguise, you used the same eyes that you had as Delilah Ketchum." Williams tone became ironically solemn as he continued. "And the eyes, Mrs. Ketchum, are the window of the soul."

* * *

To be continued...

Chapter 18 - the conclusion! - coming soon.

What do you think? Read and Review!


	18. Infinity

The Omega Mutation  
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this chapter :-D

* * *

Chapter 18 - Infinity

Night fell over Pallet Town.

Delilah Ketchum was alone at home, sat in her living room, in a rare moment of rest when she allowed herself to relax a little.

"Mime, Mi-Mime?" [Tea, Delie?] Mimey asked.

She sighed. "Thank you, Mimey. But my name now is Esther." She wondered when it would be that Mimey would remember to address her by her new name. Probably never, she concluded, resigned. The Pokémon left the room.

As the mutant woman added her preferred amount of sweetener to the tea, she considered her situation. It had been almost a year since Misty's father had discovered her identity - and, true to his promise, he had kept her secret and never importuned her. As far as anyone outside a small and select circle of friends knew, she was merely the "older sister" of the "deceased" Delilah Ketchum - she was grateful for that.

Delia sipped her tea, and noticed that was a little strong - she would have to tell Mimey to use more water with that tea. Her eyes drifted over to the screen of the videophone. Ash and Misty, with Brock and Tracey (by Professor Oak's orders), were currently engaged in a Pokémon Journey through Houen, far to the east of Kanto. When Ash had last called her, he had been in Petalburg City, preparing to fight for his fifth Gym Badge. She had no doubt that, by this time next year, Ash and Misty would both be entering the region's Pokémon League. If she had to bet, she would say that the finals would be between Ash and Misty. After all, her son had won the Global League for the second time and his girlfriend the Whirlpool Cup shortly before their departure for the new land. No doubt that it would be a hard battle, but she was looking forward to October of this year; the two Pokémon trainers had promised to return to Kanto for Halloween.

The memory of Ash's second victory in the Global League brought a memory that still confused the mutant woman. During the formal ball that celebrated her son's victory, he had introduced her to the Indigo Gym Leaders (in truth doing so again, for Delilah Ketchum had already met them the year before). Everybody had offered their condolences for "Delilah's" death. The moment that caused her the most worry arrived when Sabrina Bowman, Saffron City's Marsh Gym Leader and the world's most powerful human telepsychic, came to talk with her. Immediately, Esther raised her mental defences to guarantee that Sabrina didn't discover her secrets... But when the green-haired young woman shook hands with her, Sabrina's expression became so strange that Delilah was afraid.

"You have suffered too much," Sabrina declared in a murmur without any preamble.

"Huh?"

"You have suffered too much and blame yourself for things over which you had no control," Sabrina affirmed in a low voice.

"I... I'm sorry," Delilah replied, backing off slightly, "I don't understand."

"Mrs. Ketchum," The Gym Leader murmured so that only the older woman could hear her voice. "You are a better person than you think. Kinder and more decent than you give yourself credit; much more. The guilt that you feel... you will have a chance to absolve it."

Delilah remained in shocked silence as Sabrina stood back. That conversation had disturbed her.

Delilah shook her head and looked at the clock. In that moment, Jessie and James... oops, 'Morrigan' and 'Jeremy' should be at the movie theatre. It seemed that, now they were out of Team Rocket, they were free to admit what they felt for each other. Delilah smiled, remembering the way that James often looked at Jessie...

Yes, it seemed that after all the terrible events of the previous year, everything was going well for her family.

The woman in black rose from her armchair and she closed the curtains carefully. After confirming that Mimey had gone to sleep, she assumed her default form, stretching with a feline grace. It was always comfortable to return to this low-energy form, even though she could now maintain her human disguise without much effort. Sam Oak had examined her completely - with the help of the data about her that Jessie, James and Mondo had recovered - to determine if she was really healthy. Sam being Sam, he could not accept that Delilah could withstand the tidal-wave of X- and gamma-rays from a matter-antimatter explosion without some side-effects. Delilah couldn't blame him for that. She was nearly paralysed with surprise when she awoke on that deserted beach somewhere in the Orange Islands. According to Sam, the only possible explanation was that the radiation of the explosion had caused her genetic structure to mutate, eliminating the need for the Serum.

Delilah went to the kitchen and placed the cup in the sink. She turned the radio for some relaxing music while she checked what groceries that she would need to buy in the following morning. It was not much: just bread, milk and some butter... maybe some chocolate cookies... Just because she could eat just about anything, didn't mean that she didn't prefer human food. She was to turn off the radio, when the speaker announced, interrupting a commercial: "This is a KJEM special news bulletin!"

"What's going on now?" The mutant woman wondered, curious.

"We have just been informed that the members of Team Rocket who raided Celadon City Pokémon Center this evening have just taken control of Celadon City General Hospital, taking the patients and medical team as hostages!"

"What??" Delilah, shocked, ran to the living room and turned on the TV. INN was broadcasting live from the scene of the action.

"This is Roger Vickers, outside of Celadon City General Hospital, occupied by Team Rocket. Here with us is Lieutenant Jennifer Bookman, who is commanding the operation to apprehend the criminals. Lieutenant, could you explain what happened?"

Before the policewoman could even begin to answer, a fire-type Pokémon's Flame-thrower attack blasted out from one of the windows of the hospital. The Security Police officers and reporters all scattered to find cover.

The image was cut back to anchorwoman Michelle Crossridge in INN's Viridian City main studios: "As you have just seen, the terrorists who have taken control of the hospital have very powerful Pokémon to use as weapon. Experts on anti-terrorists tactics have warned that any police operation to re-take the building would be extremely difficult to execute without risking the lives of many officers and patients. If you have just tuned in, Celadon City General Hospital is under the control of Team Rocket, with the patients and doctors held as hostages. The terrorists invaded the hospital after fleeing from the Security Police soon after they robbed the Pokéball Safe of City's Pokémon Center. Analysts say that the situation is extremely complicated and dangerous, since the terrorists are concentrated mainly in the hospital's Children's Ward..."

The mutant woman bit her lips. Jessie had told her that, a little before she had revealed her true nature to Jessie and James during that confrontation at the old Ketchum home a long time ago, Team Rocket began to use their more violent members in "infiltration and acquisition" missions... practically walking time bombs! The idea of lunatics like that, keeping children as hostages...

As Delilah was thinking, the TV reports continued. Ms. Crossridge was now interviewing a retired police officer. "... unhappily, the classic strategy of wearing down the kidnappers with a long siege is not always completely effective. However, I believe that any attempt to storm the building will end up causing the death of many of the hostages..."

'No... it would probably be a massacre...' Delilah thought, remembering her own experiences as a Team Rocket agent. 'Those people didn't have chance...'

At that moment, a decision was formed in the mind and heart of Delilah Ketchum.

The mutant woman immediately turned off the TV. Then, she disappeared with the distinctive flare of light of a Teleport.

======

With all the attention of the Security Police and the media on the hospital, nobody noticed the winged form that landed on top of a nearby building. Its sharpened senses saw everything that it needed to know. Its brilliant eyes narrowed. It was ready. It went down until an alley alongside the building and began to melt into a puddle of blue gel. The fluid suddenly reared up and began to flow through an old pipe.

A minute later the blue gel-like substance began to flow out of the overflow of one of the sinks in one of the medical team's locker rooms. The mass rose up and assumed the from of a woman wearing a black leather biker's jacket and pants, boots and gloves. A helmet that vaguely resembled a motorcyclist's crash-helmet covered her head. In that exact moment, somebody entered the locker room and the figure hid among the lockers. It was a Rocket agent, accompanied by a Houndoom. The man sat down on one of the benches and began to smoke a cigarette.

The face behind the helmet curled upwards into a smile. Perfect.

The figure silently began to move towards the man, silent like a Persian or like a living shadow. But the Houndoom smelt her. The fire/dark-type Pokémon immediately spun to face the woman with a warning snarl. The Rocket jumped to his feet and turned in the direction that his Pokémon was glaring. "Who's there?" he called out. Omega, abandoning stealth, darted forwards from her hiding place, still disguised. "Houndoom, use Ember!" The Rocket ordered.

The mutant woman leapt agilely over the fireball that the Pokémon spat in her direction. Omega grabbed an overhead water-pipe and lifted herself up so that she seemed to be sticking to the ceiling. Deciding that the helmet wasn't as good an idea as she initially thought, Omega absorbed it back into her body, revealing her translucent blue face and fire-red hair. It certainly had the desired effect; The Houndoom and its master were both paralysed with fear.

"I suppose it's too late to ask for a cigarette?" Omega quipped with a sarcastic smirk. Then, Omega launched herself forwards, blasting the Houndoom back with a Hydro-Pump that she blasted out of her mouth as she swung forwards to drive both her booted feet into the Rocket's face. She somersaulted mid-air, landed in front of the Rocket, grabbed him by the lapels of his uniform tunic and slammed him backwards into a bank of lockers.

"How many of your team are in the hospital?" the mutant woman asked quietly. To make sure that she had the man's attention, she drove a knee into his gut. The man collapsed to his knees, but didn't speak. He was too terrified of the monster in front of him to even think. Noticing this effect, Omega decided to get the information that she needed the simple way and began to probe what, she supposed, could be generously be described as his 'mind'. It took only a fraction of a second to discover every detail of the occupation. Satisfied, she offered a smile that would freeze anyone's blood. She placed a black-gloved hand on the man's head, ready to snap his neck.

'No...' Delilah thought, firmly pressing down Omega's instinct to kill any potential threat. Instead of killing him, she knocked him out with a karate chop to the side of his neck.

After tying the fallen Rocket in bug-type webs, Omega left the locker room and began to blur through the building, a living shadow, until she reached the ground floor. According to her unwilling informant, there were twenty Rockets watching the entrances of the hospital and another fifteen other guarding their hostages.

Delilah had formulated a strategy as soon as she saw the ducts of the ventilation system. She flowed underneath a locked door marked 'Ventilation System Junction Room'. Once inside, she quickly pulled open the inspection panels on top of the various ducts that ran through the room. Then she concentrated, her arms reaching out. Her arms began to flatten, lengthen and divide into the distinctive palm-like fronds of the Exeggutor, one over each open inspection panel. As soon as her body had reformed, she began to shed Sleep Powder into the ventilation system. Then, all she had to do was to telekinetically throw the switch marked 'Air Re-circulation'.

After determining that her plan had succeeded, the mutant woman decided to notify the police outside that the situation was under control. She selected a pair of Rockets at random, tied them to trolley beds and used a powerful kick to push both out of the main doors of the hospital. While the Security Police tried to figure out what was going on, Omega adopted the form of a Muk and made a discreet exit through the sewer system.

Some minutes later, as the SPs were taking the peacefully sleeping terrorists into custody, a woman in a black raincoat with a white tuft in her dark brown hair approached a policeman outside the building. "What happened?" Esther Ketchum asked the officer.

The policeman looked at newcomer with surprise. "I don't know, lady," he replied. "It seems that somebody put the Rockets to sleep before we entered." He turned to look back at the building.

"Really? Well, that's good, isn't?"

The policeman turned to answer her but she had disappeared. He blinked with surprise. Where did she go? If the befuddled policeman had thought to look up, he would have seen a humanoid form with a Dragonite's wings arcing up into the starlit sky.

======

As Delilah Ketchum sank into a relaxing herbal bath in the sanctity of her home, she felt something that she didn't expect to feel... something so surprising that she didn't recognise the sensation at first... she felt in peace with herself.

"I just did something that I had do," she said to herself. After all, she had no right to enjoy anything, given her past sins. But a part of her liked, indeed enjoyed what she had done. And honestly, deep inside, Delilah welcomed the feeling.

======

In Houen, because of the time difference, Ash was already asleep when a strange feeling made him wake suddenly, awakening his Pokémon friends.

[What's wrong, Ash?] Pikachu asked urgently.

The boy looked at his friend, but he didn't answer. He just dressed quickly and ran to the public telephones in the atrium of the Petalburg City Pokémon Center where he and his friends were passing the night.

"Come on, mom! Answer it!" he murmured as the ringing tone purred in his ear.

"What are you doing awake at this hour?" A voice asked from behind him. It was Nurse Joy Hoffman, her arms crossed and a stern expression on her face. The redheaded woman was wearing a floral-print dressing gown and had obviously been woken up by Ash's race through the corridors of the Pokémon Center.

"Well.. that is..." Ash stammered. 'How do I explain to her?', he thought desperately.

"Trainer Ketchum, it is well past the curfew hour," Nurse Joy said sternly. "You aren't allowed out of your dorm room at this time of night!"

"Oh...!" Ash tried to look repentant and finally figured out what to say. "Well, I had a bad dream about my aunt and I wanted to make sure that she was OK." It was not the best excuse, Ash was able to admit that easily, but it was close to the truth.

Nurse Joy's expression softened a little. "Hum.. very well, Trainer Ketchum. I am sure that your aunt is fine. Now, off to bed with you, young man. You can call her tomorrow." Ash opened his mouth to argue, but Joy wouldn't have it and practically marched the boy (who was almost as tall as she was) back down the corridor to his room.

"Pikachu, my mother used her powers... as Omega." Ash explained to his closest Pokémon friend. 'I hope she had a good reason for that,' he thought, deeply concerned.

[What is an 'Omega'?] Ash's Grovyle asked in his usual disrespectful tone.

[I'll explain some other time,] Pikachu replied without even looking at the reptilian grass-type, his expression thoughtful.

[Whatever,] Grovyle responded scornfully. [Just make sure that the human lets us sleep from now on.]

======

What Ash and his mother could not know was of a meeting of mighty powers that was taking place on a rocky island near to Shamuti Island. The Titan of the Seas telepathic voice seemed to echo all around her visitor: Now it begins... The Dark Guardian starts to assume her destiny.

The tall, bipedal feline form standing in front of the huge bird-like Pokmon responded soundlessly, his mental tone dripping with sarcasm. Indeed, Mewtwo said. Is she aware of what awaits her? The consequences?

Lugia seemed to sigh. "That is something that we cannot change..."

The Titan of the Seas was deep in thought as Mewtwo teleported away to his hiding place near Cerulean City. 'Now the Two Powers are in equilibrium: the Chosen One, who will change the nature of things, and the Dark Guardian, who will protect those changes... Now the Future is safe... but I wonder what it will be...

======

Delilah Ketchum was at her home, watching a video DVD recording of an image from a security camera. On it, the smoke from a Weezing was clearing, revealing two tall teenage girls wearing rather absurd-looking Nurse Joy disguises and standing in a silly, dramatic pose on the front counter of a Pokémon Center somewhere.

"Prepare for trouble!" announced one of them, removing her disguise and revealing her white-on-black Team Rocket uniform and her fire-red hair. That was her, when her body was still that of a human and her name was still Delia Darkholme.

"Because it will be double!" Now the other girl took off her disguise, to reveal a slightly shorter girl, with hair that was nearly purple in colour. Her sister, Miyamoto.

"To protect the world from devastation."

"To unite all peoples of our nation."

"To sing the joys of truth and Love."

"To extend our reach to the stars and beyond!"

"Delia!"

"Miya!"

"Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or get ready to fight, fight, fight!"

And then in unison: "That's right!"

Tears were running down Delilah's face. It was too much. She stopped the DVD in frustration. 'Why the only chance that I had to see and hear my sister alive again is when I was doing the things that I'm ashamed of?' she thought.

At that moment, the telephone rang. Delilah stood, grateful for a distraction, and picked up the receiver. "Hello, Ketchum residence. Esther Ketchum speaking."

"Miss Ketchum. General Williams."

"Yes, Mr. Williams?"

"By any chance, would you know anything about what happened at Celadon City General Hospital a few nights ago, would you?"

Long years of practice had gifted Delilah with a perfect poker face, and it appeared that General Williams had the same gift. "Why should a humble secretarial worker know about such things, Mr. Williams?" Delilah asked guilelessly.

The two looked at each other for a long time. Was that laughter that she saw in the eyes of Misty's father?

"In that case, perhaps you might pass a message to a former member of Team Rocket of our mutual acquaintance," Kent said neutrally. "Please let her know that her intervention had neutralised an otherwise-problematic situation and certainly saved a great number of innocent lives."

"I will let her know," Delilah replied.

"Thank you, Miss Ketchum." Kent cut off the connection from his end, leaving Delilah standing in her living room, feeling very weird.

======

About one month later, on October 31, a group of six people were stepping over the stile gate that marked the end of Route 1 and the entrance to Pallet Town. They were Ash Ketchum, Misty Williams, Brock Harrison, Tracey Sketchitt and their two friends from Houen, May Crosse and her kid brother, Max.

Misty noticed the concern written on her boyfriend's face. "Stop worrying, Ash!"

"Yeah, Ash!" Brock added. "We'll soon be back at your place!"

"I know, Brock. I just can't help it..."

"Cheer up Ash!" Misty ordered. "Your moth... er... your 'aunt' didn't prepare a Halloween party to commemorate your arrival for you to be in that mood!" If May or Max had noticed Misty's verbal misstep, neither commented on it.

"Ok, Misty." Ash said with some irony.

"What will be her costume this year?" Tracey asked. He had been invited to a Halloween party in its first year as Professor Oak's assistant, which Ash's mother had attended: she wore the costume of Susan Storm, 'The Invisible Woman', from the Fantastic Four - and she was perfect! Of course now Tracey knew the secret of her costumes.

"Honestly, I have no idea..." Ash was wondering the same thing himself. He especially remembered on Halloween where his mother created a Hobbit costume for him, while she was Galadriel. "Well, here we are."

Ash opened the door of his house. Mimey came to greet them, dressed as a House Elf from the Harry Potter books.

"Dobby lives," May remarked with a giggle.

"Hi Mimey! Where are... er... Morrigan and my aunt?" Ash asked. This promised to be a strange holiday, having to tip-toe around May and Max and not let them see through the disguises of various people in the household. However, there was no avoiding it. The girl and boy from Petalburg City had been quite adamant that they wanted to visit Indigo, and Ash was essentially too nice to say no.

"I'm here!" his cousin called, walking out of the kitchen accompanied by James. Ash laughed when seeing their costume. Both were in black one-piece jump-suits with a distinctive 'X' emblem on their belts. James had a strange visor-like one-piece sunglasses over his eyes with a red lens.

Jessie stuck her fists on her hips and glared at Ash. "What's so funny?" the redhead asked, somewhat angry.

Ash swallowed his laugh. He could accept his cousin as Phoenix (Jessie might not be telekinetic, but she could certainly throw things around with the force of her fiery temper), but her boyfriend as Cyclops? He found very difficult to take it seriously...

"Nothing..." Ash said, still sniggering under his breath. "Well, where is my 'aunt'? And Meowth?"

"I coming down now!" Delilah called from the top of the stairs.

"And Meowth should be with that female Meowth that he met in Prof. Oak's labs." James added, while adjusting his costume's visor, which kept falling down his nose. Ash was planning on calling attention to this problem when he realised that his travelling companions were all looking over his head to the stairs.

"Wow...!" May gasped in awe. "Ash! You never told me that your aunt was so cool!"

Ash turned and almost fainted. Descending the stairway there was a woman with blue, scaly skin almost luminescent yellow-green eyes and short red hair. She was dressed in an elegant white dress with white long-pipe boots and gloves over a sky blue body-suit. A necklace and a belt, both with a skull emblem, completed the picture.

"M...? M...? Aunt Esther? Ash blurted out weakly.

Delilah smiled at her son in a strange manner. "Well, don't just stand there, Ash," she said, letting a little of Omega's dangerous sensuality into her voice. "My sister must have raised you with manners! You should tell a woman if you like her clothes. You do like my costume, don't you?"

Without waiting for a reply, Delilah swept past her near-paralysed son to her house-guests. Although she knew that it would make for a strange holiday, Delilah was looking forward to having guests that were unaware of her true identity and her true nature. Of late, she had been worried that she was getting sloppy, so she wanted to be able to practice her disguise and camouflage while constantly around people who didn't know her secrets. "You must be May and Max Crosse. Ash has spoken to me of you," she said, extending her hand. Max shook her hand enthusiastically. The 9-year-old boy began to babble enthusiastically about the quality of her costume.

May accepted the mutant woman's hand a lot more shyly. Delilah suspected that the pubescent 11-year-old girl was quite severely disoriented by the cocktail of pheromones that her mutant physiology naturally generated as a defensive measure. "I'm pleased to meet you, Miss Ketchum," May said quietly.

Delilah smiled with genuine warmth. "Please, May. I'm 'Esther'," she replied. "Any friend of Ash's is as good as family in this household." Much to Delilah's amusement, May responded by blushing brightly.

"Aunt Esther, can I talk to you for a moment?" Ash asked, between clenched teeth. "In private?"

"Sure, dear."

The Pokémon Trainer and his 'aunt' ascended the stairs, while the others all tried to recover from her entrance. Pikachu wondered why his friend was so disturbed by the fact of his mother have assumed that form... After all, it wasn't as if she were broadcasting her true nature... was she?

[Was that an 'Omega'?] Grovyle asked quietly, his usual arrogance missing.

Pikachu nodded with a slight smile, looking around to make sure that none of May's Pokémon were listening to them. [I told you that Ash was special, didn't I, Grovyle?] he replied quietly. [That was his mother.]

[His... mother?] Grovyle looked to where the two humans had disappeared up the stairs in shock.

Pikachu was more than glad to have finally defeated the grass-type's arrogant disdain for Ash. He turned and giggled aloud as May's Torchic and Beautifly both started fluttering around James' head, trying to dislodge his visor.

Upstairs, in Ash's bedroom, mother and son faced each other. "Mom...?" Ash blurted. He pointed to her, not knowing how to continue.

"This costume?" Delilah said with in a disturbingly casual tone of voice. "Well, it was Jessie who suggested it and I thought was a good idea..."

"But... Mystique, mother?" Ash asked helplessly. All right, he could see the irony of the choice but even so... "Mom, it is going to be hard enough to remember to use your cover name around May and Max without you practically advertising that you are a polymorph the very first time you see them!"

Delilah laughed quietly and dangerously, making a finger of ice run up Ash's spine. "Ash, May was far too busy dealing with her sudden pubescent crush on me to worry too much about overt clues in my Halloween costume as to my real nature. As for Max... well, he is more interested in the quality of my comic-book costume than anything else." The mutant woman reached out and ruffled her son's always-messy hair. "Ash, one of the first things that they teach you in Team Rocket's Extra-Legal Acquisition classes is that things are best hidden in plain sight. Tell me, would you expect a polymorph to advertise her nature by dressing as the most famous one of her kind in western popular culture? Believe me that I am better disguised dressed as Mystique than in any other costume on Earth!"

Ash shook his head. He had more important things to worry about it than his mother's disturbing and often-whimsical view of the world. "Mom," he said urgently, "tell me the truth. Have you been using your powers to perform those incredible rescues that were reported but that nobody seems to know how they happened?"

Delilah lowered her head. She couldn't lie to her son. She might be able to lie to anyone else, even herself, but not to him. "Yes, Ash," she confirmed. "That was me."

"But why? I mean, it is not that you did something wrong - it is exactly the opposite! They were wonderful things, but..." Ash breathed in deeply, trying to get his thoughts in order. "Mom, for more than 13 years you never used your powers, always stayed hidden... You hid yourself so well that I only discovered your true identity last year, when all those horrible things happened! When my healing powers appeared, you implored me to never use my powers so that the people didn't discover what I really am. I understand why you did that, why we have to keep what we are a secret. But now you are putting yourself in the line of fire, playing the superheroine...! I only want to understand, mom."

The mutant woman turned her back on her son and spent a few moments staring out of the window, trying to order her own thoughts. "Ash, what you said is true. I spent most of your life trying to hide my nature because I just wanted to live in peace and to try forget my past in Team Rocket." 'And, of course,' she added silently 'to try to be the very best mother to you that I could be.' After a moment, she continued aloud. "I asked you not to use your powers because I was afraid that you would be viewed as an aberration and hunted down. But Ash, the thing that I cannot escape is that, control necklace or not, there are crimes without number and more deaths than I want to remember that are my responsibility."

"But Mom..." Ash began.

"Please, Ash, let me finish," Delilah snapped with uncharacteristic force as she span to fix him with her glare. "They are my responsibility and I will probably pay for them in the next world - nothing would be more just than that. But ever since I helped to end that siege at the hospital, I realised that my powers could help others... that..." Delilah stopped and sighed. How could she put it in words anyway? Ash could never really understand what she had been through. "Ash, understand, that is the only way that I have to atone for all the things that I did wrong, for paying for my crimes, both as Omega and before that as one of Team Rocket. Please, Ash, understand that I need to do this."

"Mom..." Ash sighed and shook his head. Then, he took his mother into his arms (and he was nearly as tall as her now) and hugged her for a long time.

After a while, Delilah she loosened her hug and smiled at her son. "I think that we had better join our friends downstairs before the eat all the candies!"

Ash laughed and followed his mother out of the room.

======

Two days later, while Ash and Misty were showing May and Max around Pallet Town, General Kent Williams paid a visit to the Ketchum home. He had business of great importance to discuss with the Kanto Islands' best-kept secret.

"Mrs. Ketchum, don't think that I'm not grateful for the help that you've given us recently, because I am."

She shrugged. "I'm glad that I could help."

"But more and more questions regarding the 'mysterious vigilant' that is secretly solving some cases are being asked and it is becoming difficult to continue ignoring them."

"I understand," Delilah said, mentally reviewing several 'alternate forms' that she could use to confuse any potential police investigation. "Perhaps I should have been a little more discreet..."

"That isn't really an issue," Kent said firmly. "If I tell the Security Police that this is a UNDF intelligence issue, they will believe me. No, my concern is more related to changes in how the UNDF is handling terrorist incidents. Since the dissolution of Sector Athena, anti-terrorist operations have become the responsibility of the regular UNDF forces. We are setting up specialised investigation and enforcement units called 'SAED' teams. You will understand my reluctance to having troops under my command occasionally tripping over the feet of a super-powered mutant vigilant!"

Delilah supposed that she could see his point of view. She saw no point in wasting time saying so.

"I believe that I understand why you are doing this, Mrs. Ketchum, so I won't ask for you to stop - especially because I know that there is no way for me to make you stop anyway." That admission embarrassed Delilah, who shifted a little in her chair. "So the question remains," Kent concluded, "what do we do about this situation?"

The question hung in the air.

======

One week later, a meeting was in progress in the Maximum Security Room of United Nations Defense Forces HQ in Viridian City. The General Secretary Alexandra Faraday and the Security Council were listening a report by General Kent Williams, assisted by captain Kitty Pryde. General Mercedes Heisenberg and Kenshin Mitsuragi also listened attentively.

"So, General Williams, are you saying that this not original Omega?"

"Yes, Madam General Secretary. From the files that we recovered from the laboratories of Team Rocket, we could determine the true history of Project Omega. Originally, Team Rocket transformed one of their agents into the being that we knew as Omega, which was used in several attacks approximately 16 years ago. Ultimately, however, the creature proved too violent and unpredictable for them to use effectively and it was placed in stasis by the organization before it could get out of control. Then, approximately a decade later, they kidnapped an inhabitant of Indigo with a genetic code similar to the one of the original agent and they also transformed her into a second Omega, using the control mechanism that I have already briefed you about to ensure her obedience. However, once again they had underestimated their creation and the second Omega escaped to return to her son. Just one year ago, Team Rocket discovered her hiding place and moved to reclaim their prize."

General Mercedes Heisenberg remembered again the moments in the Orange League Hall of Fame. But that meant... "This person, let's call her 'Omega 2', was the one who attacked us. Team Rocket ensured that Straker learnt about her secret. When he tried capture her by making made believe that we had her son, that sent her on that rampage." Kent nodded in agreement; Actually, Heisenberg's theory was even better than the story that he had been planning to tell. "Then, in some way this 'Omega 2' learnt what Team Rocket intended to do, destroy Fuchsia City using the original Omega. So she decided to face the original Omega, who was the cause of the destruction of the Burning Desert Power Farm."

Williams nodded. "She defeated the original Omega and used it as a kind of anti-missile projectile against the incoming quantum warhead. Then, "Omega 2" returned to hiding, protecting her family as before."

"And since then, she has been helping us, from the shadows." General Secretary Faraday concluded.

"Yes, Madam General Secretary."

"But, General," interrupted Richard Stormgren, Gerald Robertson's replacement in the Security Council (the career of belligerent Robertson had been destroyed along with missile that he had ordered launched - for the relief of the other members of the Council). "I don't understand the reason why she would do this."

"Mr. Stormgren, understand that Omega 2 feels guilty for what she did when she was under the influence of Team Rocket. She wants to redeem herself by helping us in the fight against Team Rocket, who she understandably despises. And remember that she only attacked us because she was led to believe that her son - her only real remaining link with humanity - was in danger. And we all know that the need to protect our children could make any of us take extreme measures."

"But even wishing to atone for the destruction that caused, she doesn't want to work as part of our chain of command," declared the representative of East Asia.

"Quite so, Mr. Sugihara." Captain Pryde interrupted her superior officer. "For what I understand of her, she believes that this way, acting under an alias, she will protect her family. She actually has made it a condition of her assistance that we guarantee that her son will never be pursued by the UNDF. She has also made it clear that she will only consider a request for assistance if the need is urgent and dire."

"A very reasonable request, in my view." General Williams added.

"Reasonable?" One of the members of Security Council asked. It was clear what would classify as 'reasonable' conditions, in his opinion.

"Mr. Martelli, you should understand that we are not speaking about a weapon, but of a human being," Williams said firmly. His voice began to rise with passion as he continued. "She has feelings, fears, desires and all the contradictory notions that any other man or woman would have. She has an open and loving heart and wants nothing more than happiness for those she cares about. She is not a thing to be used the way that Straker clearly thought he could use her. I have personally guaranteed that her conditions for assisting us will be respected. If the Security Council believes that this is inappropriate... well, you will have my resignation on your desks within the hour."

There was a long pause after that. The diplomats were clearly very impressed with Williams' passion for his subject. Even Captain Pryde seemed astonished. "General Williams, are you sure that she is trustworthy?"

"Yes, Madam General Secretary."

"Do you know her identity, General?"

"Yes, but that is information that should only be imparted on a 'need-to-know' basis. And ladies and gentlemen, believe me when I say this: no one here needs to know at this time."

"Very well, General. Just one more question: what is her codename?"

"At the moment we are using the reporting name 'Omega 2', although that may change as we continue to finalise the operating arrangements for utilising her assistance."

The meeting was over. Williams and Pryde got ready to leave, when General Heisenberg came to speak with them:

"Williams, for your own good, I hope that you know what are you doing."

"Mercedes, trust me: Omega 2 only wants to live in peace."

"I'm sure that you believe that Kent, and I hope so too. But after the 'chat' that I had with her, it will be difficult for me to ever trust her. Even if her intentions are good, I'll only ever see the killing machine that Team Rocket made to help them rule the world... I'm sorry." Williams realised that his colleague's distrust was actually fear. To his side, Pryde seemed to have become a little discomforted, looking down at her uniform boots. When she raised her head, Mercedes had the impression that her eyes shone as like those of a Persian caught in the beam of a flashlight... but surely that was just an optical illusion...

Later, Williams and Pryde walked down to the building's ground floor and took a cab to the city park. The captain, who was carrying a tatty canvas backpack, asked her superior to wait while she used the public lavatories. She entered in one of the stalls. Her uniform flowed into the neat dress of an anonymous city worker, her hair changed from flowed from short and black to long and brown with a shock of white over her eyes and her eyes darkened from clear blue to chocolate brown. The woman pulled a black raincoat out of her backpack and put it on. Then Esther Ketchum, the new executive secretary of General Kent L. Williams, walked out of the stall and strode over to her boss.

"Thank you," she said, her voice changed to sound slightly timid and awed at being in the presence of the famous war hero.

"You are welcome," Kent replied. "Let's go and get our lunch over there." Williams indicated a restaurant.

It was almost lunchtime and the two were easily lost in the crowd as they sat down at a table in a private corner of the establishment. "Thank you for letting me take part in that meeting," Delilah said quietly.

"Well, I thought, since you had an interest in the matter, that it would be a good idea." The General shrugged. It had not been difficult to arrange: Katherine Pryde was visiting her family in Lavender Town that week; It had been child's play to modify the records so that she would not be shown as on leave on this morning. "Besides, it was a chance to remind you that I have reasons for now wanting you to play the superheroine except in a dire emergency, Mrs. Ketchum."

"I am aware of that," Delilah replied, rolling her eyes. "However, I do have one suggestion."

"Go ahead."

"Well, since I will be your secretary, although I doesn't know how you arranged that..."

"That was easy," Williams replied. "My old secretary was retiring for medical reasons. Besides, you are fully computer-literate and know at least a dozen languages. The only difficulty was not to be seen to be too eager to accept your application." It had been Delilah's suggestion to work at Alpha Command, where the new counter-terrorist forces would be based. This way she could find a way to help without revealing her identity. Of course, it helped that she told him her entire story - everything from the time that she was Delia Darkholme until today.

"Well, since we will work together, would not be better we attempt to leave aside the formal titles? It is a little strange..."

"All right, then what do you want me to call you?"

"You can call me Esther. It's my name... now, that is."

"Alright then. I'm Kent."

The two shook hands.

"And before I forget, I wanted to thank for your painful but effective therapy."

"You don't need to be sarcastic." Delilah said sadly. She knew that he referred the torture that she had inflicted on him while interrogating him about Ash and Misty's whereabouts.

"I'm being serious," the man replied. "After that, my arachnophobia ended for good. I can even look Misty's Surskit in the eye without getting the shakes."

"Well... you are welcome..." Delilah murmured and decided to change the subject. "Thank you for inviting me to lunch, by the way."

"You are welcome. It is annoying to eat alone, anyway." Williams watched the woman attentively. She was really very intelligent... and beautiful... especially her warm brown eyes... and not just the face... That gentle and friendly side of her was very attractive... As was the warrior so carefully hidden beneath that demur exterior. 'This is not the moment to start to drooling, Einstein! This woman is powerful enough to do anything, including seduce any man that she wants! Do you seriously believe that she would be interested in a man that so completely screwed up his family life that he didn't even talk to his daughters for a decade? Wake up!'

And as if on cue, Esther asked: "How are your daughters doing?"

Kent was glad for the distraction. "They are doing very well! Daisy is becoming a great Gym Leader. She has been working out a lot, without neglecting her shows. You should see one of them, one of those days. She has actually been seeing Tracey since he returned from Houen. Something is going on between them, mark my words! Violet is happy with her marriage, and she is expecting a baby!"

"Oh my! I'm very happy for her! Congratulate to her for me!"

"I will tell her. Lilly is off training her Pokémon somewhere in the Orange Islands and Misty, as you know, is on a Pokémon Journey with your son through Houen."

Delilah smiled, happy in the knowledge that Williams was getting close to his family. He deserved that much: he was a decent and honest man, concerned for his family... and he was even very attractive, she noticed. "Stop right there, Delilah! Don't even think about that - he is Misty's father! It would be wrong to say the least to try something beyond friendship... and nobody in their right mind would want a relationship with an mutant freak aberration like you anyway!"

The two finished their meal, and Delilah got up to leave.

"Before you go, a question. When you were in your... 'journey' through the Orange Islands, how did you manage to keep up your energy levels? I mean, you didn't even stop once to find food!"

She gave him an impish smile and whispered her reply. "Actually, I can synthesise my own food, like a grass-type Pokémon, but if, for some reason that is not enough..." Delia picked up a napkin and balled it up in her fist. There was a quiet hiss and the distinctive smell of hydrochloric acid. When she opened her hand the napkin had disappeared. All that remained was some ashes... "That is the equivalent of a cookie for me," she replied with a dangerous, snake-like smile.

"Wow...!" Kent murmured. 'Thank God that I have a strong stomach,' he thought, a little dumbstruck.

"I'll see you soon, General." She smiled demurely, her eyes lowered in a modest way, the disguise of 'Esther' fully in place, and left the restaurant.

======

Samuel Oak examined his samples for the thousandth time. No, there was no change in the results... as incredible that they were... He slowly passed his right hand through his white hair. "How I can tell her... how I could I tell anyone... this?" he wondered. The Pokémon researcher slowly stood up and walked across the lab. There he found Tracey supervising Delilah's time in the regenerative chamber. Oak had insisted that the mutant woman spend at last a 5 hours a month in that device to guarantee her health... but now he wondered if that was really a waste of time...

Tracey had once asked if he loved Delilah. That was something that he had thought about a lot and the best answer that he could offer was that someone had to crazy to fall in love with Omega. However, it would take a very special kind of fool not to fall in love with Delilah Ketchum... and that was the most honest answer that he could give his young friend... or himself.

He sighed... Anyway his discovery changed everything.

He tapped on the glass. Delilah's glowing eyes snapped open, questioning. "I need talk to you." Sam said, grimly.

======

December 31, 2064. It was snowing on Viridian City. A woman walked alone among the festive crowd. Practically all the people that she saw laughed, smiled, hugged those who accompanied them... It seemed that only she was alone.

She stopped in front of the window of a toy store. It had several Pokémon plushie dolls on display. She smiled when she noticed a Ninetails, the same model that had given to her son when he was five years old.

'My God, how time has passed!' Delilah Ketchum thought, pulling her hands out of the pockets of her coat and hugging herself. 'One moment Ash was just a little boy... and now he is already becoming a man! It didn't even seem possible that he was just 15 years old... Then there was Jessie! My sister's baby is all grown up...!' Her niece would be leaving to study the Infirmary course at Celadon City Technical University next year. It seemed unfair to Delilah that the niece that she had not seen for 16 years was now moving away from her... but she could not stop Jessie from pursuing her dream, could she? In the same way that she could not stop Ash to follow his dream of being to become the greatest Pokémon Master of all time...

Delilah sighed, a black-gloved hand brushing a shock of white hair out of her eyes. She stood back and continued to walk down street. A very elderly couple passed her, and it was clear that they were still in love with each other... Was that the future of Jessie and James? After all, she knew that the young man was thinking seriously of proposing marriage to Jessie - she had seen him to buy the ring that very afternoon... And it was obvious that in the future, Ash would follow the same path and he would ask for Misty's hand... And sooner or later - although a part of Delilah that didn't like to admit her real age insisted that it still a long way later - soon both would have children of their own...

Delilah walked into a dark alley among the buildings and teleported up to the top of one of them. She could see the whole city, illuminated like a giant Christmas ornament... She could hear the people celebrating the year that will come. Yes, she would live long enough to see her grandchildren, she could see the happiness in Ash and Misty's eyes when they hold in their arms a small part of themselves that would continue in the world, even after they left it... Even after they left it... Her mind went back to the conversation that she had with Sam one week ago. He promised not to tell anybody what he had discovered... nor Ash nor General Williams... no one.

Sam explained that he had compared an old sample, from the time that they first met each other, with a current one... and there were no deterioration or signs of any ageing. It was not that her mutant genetic structure was ageing more slowly, rather it was not ageing at all! Her genetically modified biology simply kept its normal operational state, without any deterioration due to age. Any other type of damage was repaired automatically by her polymorphic ability. At the very least, her ageing process was so slow that it was undetectable on any normal human time-scale.

Or in simpler terms, she didn't age.

And if you add the regenerative capacity that brought her back to life after being nearly vaporised by a quantum explosion... 

She was immortal.

She pulled a photo of her with Ash out of the inside pocket of her coat. It was a photo from before he left on his first Pokémon Journey. They had gone into Pallet Town's small shopping mall and gone into those photo booths. In the first they were side by side. In the second and third, they made funny faces for the camera. In the last, they laughed and hugged.

Ash just got very 'little' of his possible latent powers due the Omega Factor. He would age, but in a much slower rate than most people... Oak guessed (for he admitted that he had no way of calculating such an unexpected thing) that her son could easily reach his third century... That was a feat that progress in medicine would make theoretically possible for some, so his advanced age would be surprising but not impossible. He would be spared that curiosity, thank God for that...

Yes, she would see Ash and Misty having children, and these having their own children. But she would also see Ash and Misty dying, their children dying... while she would stay in this world, never ageing, never changing, a constant in a world dominated by change.

That was her gift. And it was her curse.

She would have to see those that she loved... all her family and friends... go, while she would ultimately be left only with loneliness and sadness.

There in below, the countdown approached its final moments. She could hear the crowd. "Ten... Nine... Eight..."

A tear dropped on to the photo. She didn't want this. She didn't want superpowers. She didn't want immortality. If she could choose, all that she wanted would be to regain the time that she lived in Pallet Town, taking care of Ash, as a normal mother... Those had been the happiest moments of her life...

"Seven... Six... Five..."

But she didn't have choice. Her destiny was already decided by her own DNA. Perhaps that was her punishment for her crimes... or her chance of finding redemption...

"Four... Three..."

Once she had read in a book that declared that aviation was thousands of hours of routine, interrupted by the occasional moment of terror. Perhaps something similar could be applied to herself. Her life was thousands of hours of sadness, savagery and suffering, interrupted by moments of happiness... Of course, they were the moments that made life something wonderful. "Perhaps I have had more luck than I deserved..." she thought.

"Two.... ONE!.... Happy New Year!" The crowd screamed from below.

January 1, 2065.

"Happy New Year," she murmured. A sound got her attention. She walked over to the ledge of the building and she saw a man pulling a woman brutally inside the alley below. The immortal warrior known, now and for the rest of history, only as Infinity, shrugged aside her raincoat. Her black clothes tightened, taking on an almost armour-like aspect as mighty draconic wings spread from her back.

A being that could be an angel or a demon dropped down through the sky, focussed utterly on its mission...

Or, perhaps, on its redemption.

"This is not the end, nor is it the beginning of the end. It is, rather, the end of the beginning."

-- Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, on the Battle of El-Alamein

The End?

* * *

A concluding note from the author:

I want to say thank you to everybody who read this fic until now for their patience and support. I hope that you had enjoyed it, with its different take on Ash's mother and her past. But there are two people that I had to say thank you in a special way:

First the lady: I want to thank my friend Livia Valle for her friendship and for her fanarts of Omega - every time that I felt uninspired or didn't know what to write, they brought me inspiration again. Thanks, Livia! ^_^

I also want to thank my beta-reader, sometimes co-author (for the battle at the beginning of the chapter 10, to mention just one example of many) and friend BenRG, not only for kindly beta-reading this fic, but also for his great patience to stand my babbling while discussing aspects and ideas for this fic and helping me to see possibilities that I otherwise would have missed (originally this fic would have been only eight chapters long, ending wilth Delilah's death - but our discussions inspired and helped me to make this fic what it is now). Thanks, friend, for everything. :-D

And thanks to everybody that read and reviewed this fic. Your support helped me through it.

Thank you. :-D

* * *

Disclaimer:

Pokémon and its characters are property of Nintendo and Game Freak, Inc. The song "The Impossible Dream" is property of its composers (although I don't know who...). "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is property of J.R.R. Tolkien. "X-Men", "Operation: Zero Tolerance" and its characters are property of Marvel Entertainment. "Battlemechs" are part of the "Mechwarrior" game universe, a property of FASA Games. The McAlester Chemical Plant is a reference to BenRG's story "The Journey" and the Anvil is a reference to his "Avenger" series. No copyright infringement is intended by this story. This is a fanfiction work, created for fun.


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